MSACL 2019 EU Abstract

Exploring the Volatomic Fingerprinting of Breast Cancer Tissue as an Untargeted Approach to Identify Potential Biomarkers

Catarina Silva (1), Rosa Perestrelo (1), Filipa Capelinha (2), Helena Tomás (1,3), José S. Câmara (1,3*)
(1) CQM - Centro de Química da Madeira, Universidade da Madeira, Campus da Penteada, 9020-105 Funchal, Portugal. (2) SESARAM, EPE. Hospital Dr. Nélio Mendonça, Serviço de Anatomia Patológica, Avenida Luís de Camões, nº 57 – 9004-514 Funchal, Portugal (3) Faculdade de Ciências Exatas e da Engenharia, Universidade da Madeira, Campus da Penteada, 9020-105 Funchal, Portugal. *E-mail: jsc@staff.uma.pt

Warning: Undefined variable $headshot in /var/www/html/view_abstract/view_abstract_in_program.php on line 704

Rosa Perestrelo (Presenter) Centro de Química da Madeira, UMa

Presenter Bio: Rosa Perestrelo is a young faculty member (since March 1st, 2019) working in CQM (Madeira Chemistry Research Center) research unit, Madeira University, Portugal (https://cqm.uma.pt/portal_mmx/). She studied Chemistry in Madeira University, completed a master degree in Green Chemistry (Faculty of Sciences of Lisbon University) and finished her PhD in 2013. She published 38 SCI papers,5 book chapters, and more than 70 poster presentations in International and National conferences and about 19 Oral communications. H-index: 22; Number of citations: 1296; ORCID nº: 0000-0002-7223-1022.key subject areas: Analytical Chemistry - Metabolomics - Medicinal Chemistry.

Relevant Financial Disclosures (within past 24 months) No relevant financial relationship(s) to disclose. Discussing Products? NO, presenter will NOT present educational content related to products/services of the ineligible company(ies) listed above. Conflict mitigation NOT REQUIRED.

Introduction: Cancer is the second leading cause of death globally and is estimated to account for 9.6 million death in 2018 (WHO). Breast cancer (BC) remain the most common cancer in women and is ranked as the fifth amongst all cancers followed by colorectal, lung, cervix, and stomach cancers. The late diagnosis, using invasive and expensive procedures and the critical lack of medical and laboratorial infrastructures in the developing countries, are certainly two key contributing factors for this scenario. Therefore, more sensitive and specific diagnostic methods are urgently required.
Objective: The aim of this study was to explore the potential of the volatomic fingerprint of BC and breast cancer-free (BCF) tissues (n=30) from the same patients, to identify a set of endogenous volatile organic metabolites (EVOMs) potential BC biomarkers which might be used together or complementary with the most common BC diagnostics strategies.
Method: Tissue samples were thawed and 100 mg were weighted into 20 mL vials to which was added 17 % NaCl (w/v), 1000 µL of ultrapure water, 100 µL of the internal standard. The pH was adjusted to 2. The SPME fiber was introduced and exposed into the headspace for 75 min at 50 °C under agitation (800 rpm). The SPME fiber was removed from the vial and inserted into the GC injection during 10 min at 250 °C, separation on GC and identification by MS.
Results: Twenty-nine metabolites, belonging to several chemical families, were identified. Multivariate statistical analysis revealed some metabolites significantly altered in BC patients. Limonene, decanoic acid, acetic acid and furfural showed the highest sensitivity and specificity to discriminate of BC and BCF tissues (VIP >1, p < 0.05). The discrimination efficiency and accuracy of BC tissue metabolites was ascertained by ROC curve analysis that allowed the identification of some metabolites with high sensitivity and specificity. The metabolic pathway analysis indicated that the discriminatory metabolites could be originated from several dysregulated pathways in BC such as those involved in pyruvate and sulphur metabolism, and limonene degradation.
Conclusion: The obtained results suggest the possibility to identify endogenous metabolites as a platform to discover potential BC biomarkers and paves a way to investigate the related metabolomic pathways to improve the diagnostic tools of BC.
Acknowledgements: This work was supported by FCT-Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (project PEstOE/QUI/UI0674/2019 and INNOINDIGO/0001/2015), Madeira 14-20 Program (project PROEQUIPRAM - Reforço do Investimento em Equipamentos e Infraestruturas Científicas na RAM - M1420-01-0145-FEDER-000008) and by ARDITI-Agência Regional para o Desenvolvimento da Investigação Tecnologia e Inovação through the project M1420-01-0145-FEDER-000005 - Centro de Química da Madeira - CQM+ (Madeira 14-20). Catarina Silva acknowledge the FCT for the PhD grant (SFRH/BD/97039/2013).