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A pilot study for colorectal carcinoma screening by instant metabolomic profiles using conductive polymer spray
Chao Li1, Kexin Li2, Xiaoyu Xu2
1Department of Pharmacy, Beijing Hospital, Beijing 100730, China; National Center of Gerontology, Beijing 100730, China; Institute of Geriatric Medicine, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences, Beijing 100730, China; Beijing Key Laboratory of Assessment of Clinical Drugs Risk and Individual Application (Beijing Hospital), Beijing 100730, China.
Background:
The rapid and accurate discrimination of colorectal carcinoma (CRC) and polyps at the molecular level enables early intervention of CRC, which can greatly improve the 5-year survival rate of patients. Here we reported the potential of conductive polymer spray ionization mass spectrometry (CPSI-MS) in successfully screening CRC according to the serum metabolic profile.
Methods:
Trace intravenous blood (50 μL) was collected from 60 colorectal carcinoma (CRC) and 60 polyp patients, respectively. After centrifugation, serum (2 μL) was loaded onto the tip of conductive polymer to form a dried serum spot. When the 5 μL methanol-water (1:1, v/v) extraction solvent was spiked onto the dried serum spot followed with +4.5 kV high voltage applied on the polymer tip, the extracted components will be ionized and carried into the MS system for direct metabolic profiling.
Findings:
There were 51 metabolites discovered to be significantly changed in CRC serum compared to polyps. Combining these metabolites as the characteristic panel, the ideal diagnostic performance was achieved by Lasso regression model with the accuracy of 88.3%.
Interpretation:
This pilot study demonstrated the potential of CPSI-MS as a cost-effective tool in large-scale CRC screening in the high-risk population.
