Zhipu Xuebao (May 2024)
New Advances of Single-cell Analysis Based on Mass Spectrometry
Abstract
Cells are the most basic structural and functional unit of living organisms. In recent years, people have paid more attention to cell heterogeneity. In order to characterize the heterogeneity of cells and prevent the life information in an individual cell from being overwhelmed by the average level of the population gained from traditional cell biology research, many new analytical techniques have been developed for single-cell analysis. However, single-cell analysis is extremely challenging due to the minimal cell volume, low content and wide variety of analytes in single cells, some of analytes change rapidly in cells and others may interfere with each other during analysis. Mass spectrometry has gradually become an ideal tool for single-cell analysis due to its high sensitivity, high resolution and high selectivity. In this review, several techniques of single-cell analysis based on mass spectrometry in the recent five years were systematically summarized and discussed including electrospray ionization mass spectrometry (ESI-MS), laser desorption ionization mass spectrometry (LDI-MS), secondary ion mass spectrometry (SIMS) and inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS). Finally, this review also looked into future developments of these mass spectrometry-based techniques. With the development of cell biology, the requirement for single-cell analysis technology is increasing as well. In the meanwhile, single-cell analysis, which focuses on studying the mechanisms of cellular and molecular behavior, has aroused more and more attention from various branches of life sciences in recent years. Although higher spatial resolution and detection sensitivity have become the development trends for single-cell mass spectrometry, none of these mass spectrometry-based techniques can be recognized flawless, which means they all have certain flaws to some extent. Consequently, single-cell analysis technology based on mass spectrometry is developing towards methodological diversification. On the one hand, it is of great importance to choose one suitable mass spectrometry-based technique according to the research purpose and actual conditions. On the other hand, it should be also emphasized that different methods can complement each other and jointly provide a more comprehensive analysis environment for single-cell mass spectrometry, thereby improving and innovating existing single-cell analysis techniques based on mass spectrometry. This review will provide insights into better understanding on and development of single-cell analysis by mass spectrometry.
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