Recent advances in the application of metallomics in diagnosis and prognosis of human cancer

Abstract

Metals play a critical role in human health and diseases. In recent years, metallomics has been introduced and extensively applied to investigate the distribution, regulation, function, and crosstalk of metal(loid) ions in various physiological and pathological processes. Based on high-throughput multielemental analytical techniques and bioinformatics methods, it is possible to elucidate the correlation between the metabolism and homeostasis of diverse metals and complex diseases, in particular for cancer. This review aims to provide an overview of recent progress made in the application of metallomics in cancer research. We mainly focuses on the studies about metallomic profiling of different human biological samples for several major types of cancer, which reveal distinct and dynamic patterns of metal ion contents and the potential benefits of using such information in the detection and prognosis of these malignancies. Elevated levels of copper appear to be a significant risk factor for various cancers, and each type of cancer has a unique distribution of metals in biofluids, hair/nails, and tumor-affected tissues. Furthermore, associations between genetic variations in representative metalloprotein genes and cancer susceptibility have also been demonstrated. Overall, metallomics not only offers a better understanding of the relationship between metal dyshomeostasis and the development of cancer but also facilitates the discovery of new diagnostic and prognostic markers for cancer translational medicine.

Recent advances in the application of ionomics in metabolic diseases

“…Comparison of the integrated ionomic profiles in different biological samples for major types of metabolic diseases has demonstrated common/specific trends in the changes of elemental contents ( Figure 1 ). Considering that the number of ionomics studies for each subtype of blood samples (i.e., whole blood, serum, and plasma) is very limited for most metabolic diseases, in this review, we combined different subtypes of blood samples to try to give a general trend of the changes of elemental concentrations in the blood as previously adopted for cancer blood metallomics ( 280 ).…”

Chicken skin-derived collagen peptides chelated zinc promotes zinc absorption and represses tumor growth and invasion in vivo by suppressing autophagy

“…Zinc is the second most abundant micronutrient in humans and plays critical roles in many general cellular functions (1). The distribution, regulation, and crosstalk of these micronutrients are widely involved in various physiological and pathological processes (2)(3)(4). The significance of zinc for health Liu et al 10.3389/fnut.2022.960926 has been paid more and more attention because its deficiency may lead to many diseases, such as anorexia, loss of appetite, smell and taste disorders, and other disorders (4)(5)(6).…”