HR-MAS NMR CONTRIBUTION TO THE COMPREHENSION OF METABOLIC DISORDERS IN INFLAMMATORY AND NEOPLASTIC HYPERPROLIFERATIVE DISEASE

HR-MAS NMR spectroscopy allows the detailed metabolic analysis of whole biopsy samples, of normal and alterated tissues, to be performed. The NMR spectra constitute a “fingerprint” of the whole metabolome. Correlations between some metabolites and proliferative markers allow gaining insight into the relationship between cellular proliferation and the metabolic changes associated with the presence and tumour aggressiveness. Because metabolites represent the downstream expression of genome, transcriptome and proteome, they can closely reflect the phenotype of an organism at a specific time. Analyzing metabolic differences between normal and perturbed pathways could also provide insight into disease prognosis and diagnosis. Metabolomics could reveal novel cancer biomarkers that might expand our current understanding of this multi-factorial disease. The clinical role of proton NMR in the evaluation of brain tumours, as well as breast and prostate cancer, has been under investigation for several years.[1] During last years our interest was focused on metabolism of colonrectal and brain tissues by using the HR-MAS NMR technique. Some results coming for our research on glioma and linfoma brain tumours and the metabolic correlation existing between colorectal cancer and polyps will be presented.