Authors

I Berrueta Razo¹; P Yip²; A Gagunashvili³; L Ajram⁴; A Malaspina⁵; PJ Hart³; 
¹ MDC Catapult, UK;  ² Queen Mary University of London, UK;  ³ Medicines Discovery Catapult, UK;  ⁴ Medicine Discovery Catapult, UK;  ⁵ UCL, UK

Discussion

Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) or Motor neuron disease, is a degenerative condition that leads to the deterioration of lower and motor neurons. Consequently, patients experience muscle paralysis that eventually leads to death. In this project, we use Mass Spectrometry Imaging (MSI), specifically Desorption Electrospray Ionisation (DESI-MSI) to investigate the dysregulation of lipid metabolism in preclinical brain and preclinical spinal cord from mice with slow and fast ALS progression. The images obtained with DESI-MSI were segmented and analysed with statistical methods to obtain the chemical differences between ALS and control samples. Potential lipid biomarkers identified in ALS samples with DESI-MSI were absent or present to a lesser extent in control tissues. These findings support a link between altered metabolism of lipids and the progression of ALS. Further MSI experiments in clinical samples will provide insight into the translational nature of the MSI methods implemented and into the role of highlighted biomarkers and their potential application in drug discovery.