Biofluid Metabolic Profiling for Lung Cancer Screening via Reactive Matrix-Assisted Laser Desorption Ionization Mass Spectrometry

Lung cancer (LC) has the highest mortality rate amongvarious cancerdiseases. Developing an early screening method for LC with high classificationaccuracy is essential. Herein, 2-hydrazinoquinoline (2-HQ) is utilizedas a dual-mode reactive matrix for metabolic fingerprint analysisand LC screening via matrix-assisted laser desorption ionization massspectrometry (MALDI-MS). Metabolites in both positive modeand negative mode can be detected using 2-HQ as the matrix, and derivativeanalysis of aldehyde and ketone compounds can be achieved simultaneously.Hundreds of serum and urine samples from LC patients and healthy volunteerswere analyzed. Combined with machine learning, LC patients and healthyvolunteers were successfully distinguished with a high area underthe curve value (0.996 for blind serum samples and 0.938 for urine).The MS signal was identified for metabolic profiling, and dysregulatedmetabolites of the LC group were analyzed. The above results showedthat this method has great potential for rapid screening of LC.