Single-cell mass spectrometry

Mohammad Tajik; Mahroo Baharfar; William A Donald

doi:10.1016/j.tibtech.2022.04.004

Single-cell mass spectrometry

Trends Biotechnol. 2022 Nov;40(11):1374-1392. doi: 10.1016/j.tibtech.2022.04.004. Epub 2022 May 11.

Authors

Mohammad Tajik¹, Mahroo Baharfar², William A Donald³

Affiliations

¹ School of Chemistry, University of New South Wales, Sydney, New South Wales, 2052, Australia.
² School of Chemical Engineering, University of New South Wales, Sydney, New South Wales, 2052, Australia.
³ School of Chemistry, University of New South Wales, Sydney, New South Wales, 2052, Australia. Electronic address: w.donald@unsw.edu.au.

PMID: 35562238
DOI: 10.1016/j.tibtech.2022.04.004

Abstract

Owing to recent advances in mass spectrometry (MS), tens to hundreds of proteins, lipids, and small molecules can be measured in single cells. The ability to characterize the molecular heterogeneity of individual cells is necessary to define the full assortment of cell subtypes and identify their function. We review single-cell MS including high-throughput, targeted, mass cytometry-based approaches and antibody-free methods for broad profiling of the proteome and metabolome of single cells. The advantages and disadvantages of different methods are discussed, as well as the challenges and opportunities for further improvements in single-cell MS. These methods is being used in biomedicine in several applications including revealing tumor heterogeneity and high-content drug screening.

Keywords: cellular heterogeneity; lipidomics; mass cytometry; mass spectrometry; metabolomics; proteomics; single-cell analysis.

Publication types

Review
Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

Lipids
Mass Spectrometry / methods
Metabolome / physiology
Metabolomics* / methods
Proteome* / metabolism

Substances

Lipids
Proteome