MALDI tissue imaging using conjugates cleavable by fast fragmentation

摘要

The invention relates to a method for determining at least one target molecule map in a tissue section, comprising : a) hybridizing said tissue section with at least one (A-X)_n-B conjugate, wherein A is a tag molecule of known molecular weight, X is a linker that is cleaved by fragmentation during sample desorption/ionization, n is an integer of at least 1, B is a binding molecule that binds specifically to said target molecule, and each distinct B molecule is linked to a distinct A tag molecule; b) scanning the tissue section surface and analyzing each adjacent spot with a mass spectrometer, wherein said linker X is cleaved by fragmentation during sample desorption/ionization, and wherein the resulting data of each spot is saved; and c) analyzing the obtained data in the molecular mass window(s) of each distinct tag molecule to create as many maps of the tissue section as the number of distinct studied target molecules.