Recent progress in mass spectrometry for single-cell metabolomics

Xingyu Pan; Huan Yao; Sichun Zhang; Xinrong Zhang

doi:10.1016/j.cbpa.2022.102226

Recent progress in mass spectrometry for single-cell metabolomics

Curr Opin Chem Biol. 2022 Dec:71:102226. doi: 10.1016/j.cbpa.2022.102226. Epub 2022 Nov 5.

Authors

Xingyu Pan¹, Huan Yao², Sichun Zhang¹, Xinrong Zhang³

Affiliations

¹ Department of Chemistry, Tsinghua University, Beijing, China.
² Division of Chemistry and Analytical Science; National Institute of Metrology, Beijing, China.
³ Department of Chemistry, Tsinghua University, Beijing, China. Electronic address: xrzhang@mail.tsinghua.edu.cn.

PMID: 36347197
DOI: 10.1016/j.cbpa.2022.102226

Abstract

Metabolites are the end products of cellular vital activities and can reflect the state of cellular to a certain extent. Rapid change of metabolites and the low abundance of signature metabolites cause difficulties in single-cell detection, which is a great challenge in single-cell metabolomics analysis. Mass spectrometry (MS) is a powerful tool that uniquely suited to detect intracellular small-molecule metabolites and has shown good application in single-cell metabolite analysis. In this mini-review, we describe three types of emerging technologies for MS-based single-cell metabolic analysis in recent years, including nano-ESI-MS based single-cell metabolomics analysis, high-throughput analysis via flow cytometry, and cellular metabolic imaging analysis. These techniques provide a large amount of single-cell metabolic data, allowing the potential of MS in single-cell metabolic analysis is gradually being explored and is of great importance in disease and life science research.

Keywords: Cytometry; ESI; MADLI; Mass Spectrometry; Nano-ESI; SIMS; Single-cell metabolomics.

Publication types

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

MeSH terms

Metabolomics* / methods
Single-Cell Analysis / methods
Spectrometry, Mass, Electrospray Ionization*