Mass Spectrometry-Based Omics and Imaging Technique: A Novel Tool for Molecular Toxicology and Health Impacts

Mass spectrometry (MS)-based omics and MS imaging (MSI) technique have been adopted as a powerful analytical strategy to investigate the toxicological effect on human health and molecular mechanism of environmental pollutants. In contrast to conventional toxicological methodologies, MS-based omics and MSI technique provides the possibility to analysis a plenty of molecules in qualitative, quantitative and spatial distribution variation including parent compounds and their metabolites as well as related endogenous metabolome, lipidome and proteome. In this perspective, we showcase the progress in MS-based omics analysis and MSI, and highlight sample preparation, high-throughput screening, data mining and more which are critical to the success of acquiring the exogenous exposure-induced molecule profiling variation and effective risk assessment method at the cellular and organ scale. The aim of this review is to contribute to a better understanding of potential molecule toxicity, pathological findings and action mechanisms caused by pollutant exposure, avoiding the environmental damage on human health if possible.