Molecular tissue profiling by MALDI imaging: recent progress and applications in cancer research

Abstract

Matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization (MALDI) imaging is an emergent technology that has been increasingly adopted in cancer research. MALDI imaging is capable of providing global molecular mapping of the abundance and spatial information of biomolecules directly in the tissues without labeling. It enables the characterization of a wide spectrum of analytes, including proteins, peptides, glycans, lipids, drugs, and metabolites and is well suited for both discovery and targeted analysis. An advantage of MALDI imaging is that it maintains tissue integrity, which allows correlation with histological features. It has proven to be a valuable tool for probing tumor heterogeneity and has been increasingly applied to interrogate molecular events associated with cancer. It provides unique insights into both the molecular content and spatial details that are not accessible by other techniques, and it has allowed considerable progress in the field of cancer research. In this review, we first provide an overview of the MALDI imaging workflow and approach. We then highlight some useful applications in various niches of cancer research, followed by a discussion of the challenges, recent developments and future prospect of this technique in the field.

Keywords:

• MALDI imaging
• mass spectrometry
• cancer
• biomarker
• histopathology

Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank Prof. Liam McDonnell for his critical review and constructive feedback on the manuscript.

Disclosure statement

The authors report no declarations of interest.

Additional information

Funding

This study is supported by the Fundamental Research Grant Scheme [FRGS/1/2019/SKK08/UKM/03/5] awarded by the Ministry of Higher Education, Malaysia to Pey Yee Lee.