Exploring New Methods to Study and Moderate Proton Beam Damage for Multimodal Imaging on a Single Tissue Section

Area of Science:

• Biomedical imaging
• Materials science
• Analytical chemistry

Background:

• Proton beam applications in elemental mapping and cancer therapy require understanding beam-induced damage.
• Lipid damage in biological tissues is a critical concern for these applications.
• Existing methods for characterizing such damage are limited.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop and apply a novel mass spectrometry imaging (MSI) strategy for characterizing proton beam damage to lipids in biological tissues.
• To investigate methods for mitigating proton beam damage to lipids during irradiation.
• To explore sample preparation techniques that enhance lipid signals in MSI.

Main Methods:

• Development of a novel MSI-based methodology for assessing proton beam damage to lipids.
• Ex vivo irradiation of biological tissues under varying conditions (ambient pressure, organic matrix application).
• Analysis of lipid alterations using MSI.

Main Results:

• Proton beam irradiation induces damage to lipids in biological tissues.
• Performing proton beam irradiation at ambient pressure significantly reduces lipid damage.
• Application of an organic matrix prior to irradiation further mitigates lipid damage.
• Sample storage in vacuum prior to desorption electrospray ionization (DESI) MSI enhances lipid signals, independent of irradiation.

Conclusions:

• Ambient pressure irradiation and organic matrix application are effective strategies to reduce proton beam-induced lipid damage in tissues.
• These findings have implications for improving proton beam cancer therapy and elemental mapping techniques.
• Vacuum storage prior to DESI-MSI is a beneficial sample preparation step for enhancing lipid detection in biological samples.