title: Fingerprinting breast cancer vs. normal mammary cells by mass spectrometric analysis of volatiles.
abstract: There is increasing interest in the development of noninvasive diagnostic methods for early cancer detection, to improve the survival rate and quality of life of cancer patients. Identification of volatile metabolic compounds may provide an approach for noninvasive early diagnosis of malignant diseases. Here we analyzed the volatile metabolic signature of human breast cancer cell lines versus normal human mammary cells. Volatile compounds in the headspace of conditioned culture medium were directly fingerprinted by secondary electrospray ionization-mass spectrometry. The mass spectra were subsequently treated statistically to identify discriminating features between normal vs. cancerous cell types. We were able to classify different samples by using feature selection followed by principal component analysis (PCA). Additionally, high-resolution mass spectrometry allowed us to propose their chemical structures for some of the most discriminating molecules. We conclude that cancerous cells can release a characteristic odor whose constituents may be used as disease markers.
authors.affiliation: 1] State Key Laboratory of Bioactive Substance and Function of Natural Medicines, Institute of Materia Medica, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences and Peking Union Medical College, Beijing 100050, P.R. China [2] ETH Zurich, Department of Chemistry and Applied Biosciences, CH-8093 Zurich, Switzerland.
authors.forename: Jingjing
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: He
authors.affiliation: ETH Zurich, Department of Chemistry and Applied Biosciences, CH-8093 Zurich, Switzerland.
authors.forename: Pablo Martinez-Lozano
authors.initials: PM
authors.lastname: Sinues
authors.affiliation: ETH Zurich, Institute of Pharmaceutical Sciences, CH-8093 Zurich, Switzerland.
authors.forename: Maija
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Hollmén
authors.affiliation: ETH Zurich, Department of Chemistry and Applied Biosciences, CH-8093 Zurich, Switzerland.
authors.forename: Xue
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: ETH Zurich, Institute of Pharmaceutical Sciences, CH-8093 Zurich, Switzerland.
authors.forename: Michael
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Detmar
authors.affiliation: ETH Zurich, Department of Chemistry and Applied Biosciences, CH-8093 Zurich, Switzerland.
authors.forename: Renato
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Zenobi
mesh_terms: D001940:Breast / Q000378:metabolism*; D001943:Breast Neoplasms / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000378:metabolism; D002478:Cells, Cultured; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D025341:Principal Component Analysis; D021241:Spectrometry, Mass, Electrospray Ionization / Q000379:methods*; D055549:Volatile Organic Compounds / Q000032:analysis*
chemical_list: D055549:Volatile Organic Compounds