What’s Happening in Mass Spec?

A sign of life? Saturn’s moon Enceladus is one of the best candidates for life elsewhere in the solar system. Enceladus harbors an ocean of liquid water beneath its icy surface – like Europa and Titan – and jets that shoot water vapor into space. NASA's Cassini flew by and took a sample of the plume ice sprayed out of the subsurface ocean and analyzed it using Cassini’s Cosmic Dust Analyzer, which includes a time-of-flight mass spectrometer. Last week, researchers announced that resulting spectra included phosphorus – a key building block for life. “This is a stunning result for astrobiology and a major step forward in the search for life beyond Earth,” said study co-author Christopher Glein in a press release.

What’s your proteome age? The concept of “biological age” has emerged in recent decades – the idea being that age can be predicted from physiological markers and may differ from a person’s chronological age. But which markers? An international team of researchers used a combination of mass spec and small RNA sequencing to quantify proteins and miRNAs, respectively, that changed in abundance with age. They then used the data to develop age-predictive models. They found that proteins yielded the most accurate model, followed by miRNA, and that using both together improved predictions.   “We see our work as an indication that combining different molecular data types could be a general strategy to improve future aging clocks,” wrote the authors. 

Scent of a woman – or a man. The profile of scent compounds from a person’s hand can be used to predict their sex, according to research from Florida International University, USA. The team used headspace-solid phase microextraction-gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (HS-SPME-GC-MS) to analyze the volatile scent compounds present on the palms of 60 individuals – half male and half female. The analysis successfully predicted a person’s sex with a 96.67 percent accuracy rate. The researchers hint at forensic applications, given that trace amounts of evidence can be deposited on everyday objects through touch interactions. 

Ohio’s mass spec Mystery Machine. On February 3, 2023, a train carrying numerous hazardous chemicals derailed in East Palestine, Ohio, USA. Following a controlled burn of some of the hazardous cargo, residents reported headaches and respiratory, skin, and eye irritation. To monitor air quality, researchers drove a cargo van around the area for two days in late February. This Mystery Machine contained a proton transfer reaction-mass spectrometer, which revealed that average concentrations of benzene, toluene, xylenes, and vinyl chloride were below minimal risk levels for intermediate and chronic exposures; but levels of acrolein were up to six times higher than the local rural background. Nontargeted analyses identified levels of additional unique compounds above background levels. Jinkies!

The new meta. Microbial proteins with a role in stress response, gene expression, and DNA repair were found to be upregulated in patients with severe COVID-19, according to an international team of researchers from the US and India. The team used mass spec to analyze nasopharyngeal swab samples to investigate the metaproteome – specifically, the proteins expressed by microorganisms. “We believe that clinical metaproteomics can serve as an excellent tool to aid untargeted diagnosis and, thereby, better management of secondary infections,” wrote the authors. “Furthermore, a similar workflow can be utilized for wastewater microbiome surveillance to track community-wide emergence and transmission of infectious agents and their variants.”

^{Image Credit: NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute, Processed by Kevin M. Gill}