Mass spectrometry in the lipid study of cancer

ABSTRACT

Introduction: Cancer is a heterogeneous disease that exploits various metabolic pathways to meet the demand for increased energy and structural components. Lipids are biomolecules that play essential roles as high energy sources, mediators, and structural components of biological membranes. Accumulating evidence has established that altered lipid metabolism is a hallmark of cancer.

Areas covered: Mass spectrometry (MS) is a label-free analytical tool that can simultaneously identify and quantify hundreds of analytes. To date, comprehensive lipid studies exclusively rely on this technique. Here, we reviewed the use of MS in the study of lipids in various cancers and discuss its instrumental limitations and challenges.

Expert opinion: MS and MS imaging have significantly contributed to revealing altered lipid metabolism in a variety of cancers. Currently, a single MS approach cannot profile the entire lipidome because of its lack of sensitivity and specificity for all lipid classes. For the metabolic pathway investigation, lipid study requires the integration of MS with other molecular approaches. Future developments regarding the high spatial resolution, mass resolution, and sensitivity of MS instruments are warranted.

KEYWORDS:

• Cancer
• Lipid
• Mass spectrometry
• Mass spectrometry imaging.

Article highlights

• Mass spectrometry (MS) and mass spectrometry imaging (MSI) are label-free methods that are indispensable for lipid studies.

• Various MS approaches (direct infusion MS, gas chromatography-MS, liquid chromatography-MS, and MSI) have been used for studying lipids in cancer.

• Altered lipid metabolism in various cancer types revealed by MS has been reviewed.

• The capability of pathway investigation by integrated approaches has been discussed.

• The challenges and future developments in the study of lipid in cancer have been discussed.

Reviewer disclosures

Peer reviewers on this manuscript have no relevant financial or other relationships to disclose.

Declaration of interest

The authors have no relevant affiliations or financial involvement with any organization or entity with a financial interest in or financial conflict with the subject matter or materials discussed in the manuscript. This includes employment, consultancies, honoraria, stock ownership or options, expert testimony, grants or patents received or pending, or royalties.

Additional information

Funding

This paper was funded by AMED (Grant Number JP20gm0910004), JSPS KAKENHI (Grant Number JP18H05268), and MEXT Project for promoting public utilization of advanced research infrastructure (Imaging Platform) under grant number JPMXS0410300220, Japan.