High-Throughput Metabolomic Profiling of Skin Lesions: Comparative Study of Cutaneous Squamous Cell Carcinoma, Basal Cell Carcinoma, and Normal Skin Via e-Biopsy Sampling

Abstract

Purpose: Rising rates of cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma (cSCC) and basal cell carcinoma (BCC) make standard histopathology diagnostic methods a bottleneck. Using tissue molecular information for diagnostics offers a promising alternative. Faster specimen collection and high-throughput molecular identification can improve the processing of the increasing number of tumors. This study aims (i) to confirm the ability of e-biopsy technique to harvest metabolites, (ii) to obtain high-resolution metabolomic profiles of cSCC, BCC, and healthy skin tissues, and (iii) to perform a comparative analysis of the collected profiles. Methods: Tumor specimens were collected with electroporation-based biopsy (e-biopsy), a minimally invasive sampling collection tool, from 13 tissue samples (cSCC, BCC, and healthy skin) from 12 patients. Ultra performance liquid chromatography and tandem mass spectrometry (UPLC-MS-MS) was used for molecular identification and quantification of resulting metabolomic profiles. Results: Here we report measurements of 2325 small metabolites identified (301 with high confidence) in 13 tissue samples from 12 patients. Comparative analysis identified 34 significantly (p < 0.05) differentially expressed high-confidence metabolites. Generally, we observed a greater number of metabolites with higher expression, in cSCC and in BCC compared to healthy tissues, belonging to the subclass amino acids, peptides, and analogues. Conclusions: These findings confirm the ability of e-biopsy technique to obtain high-resolution metabolomic profiles suitable to downstream bioinformatics analysis. This highlights the potential of e-biopsy coupled with UPLC-MS-MS for rapid, high-throughput metabolomic profiling in skin cancers and supports its utility as a promising diagnostic alternative to standard histopathology.