The burgeoning spatial multi-omics in human gastrointestinal cancers.

Area of Science:

• Molecular Biology
• Genomics
• Pathology

Background:

• Understanding multicellular organism development and disease requires high-resolution biological data within the 3D body context.
• Single-cell multi-omics offers resolution but loses spatial information.
• Spatial multi-omics retains spatial context, crucial for deciphering molecular mechanisms.

Purpose of the Study:

• To provide a comprehensive overview of spatial multi-omics technologies.
• To highlight their applications in digestive tumor research, specifically esophageal, gastric, and colorectal cancers.
• To foster the adoption of spatial multi-omics in digestive oncology.

Main Methods:

• Review of spatial transcriptomics technologies.
• Review of spatial proteomics technologies.
• Review of spatial metabolomics technologies.

Main Results:

• Spatial multi-omics is vital for understanding tumor biology, including occurrence, development, metastasis, immunity, and microenvironment heterogeneity.
• These technologies are increasingly applied to digestive cancers.
• The review details specific techniques and their utility.

Conclusions:

• Spatial multi-omics significantly enhances the understanding of individual development and disease pathology.
• These techniques are instrumental in advancing research on digestive tumors.
• New technical insights are provided for molecular biology researchers in this field.