Maria Fedorova

University of Leipzig · Institute of Bioanalytical Chemistry

Ferroptosis, a non-apoptotic form of cell death marked by iron-dependent lipid peroxidation1, has a key role in organ injury, degenerative disease and vulnerability of therapy-resistant cancers2. Although substantial progress has been made in understanding the molecular processes relevant to ferroptosis, additional cell-extrinsic and cell-intrinsic...

Although lipids are crucial molecules for cell structure, metabolism, and signaling in most organs, they have additional specific functions in the skin. Lipids are required for the maintenance and regulation of the epidermal barrier, physical properties of the skin, and defense against microbes. Analysis of the lipidome–the totality of lipids–is of...

Lipids are a structurally diverse class of biomolecules which can undergo a variety of chemical modifications. Among them, lipid (per)oxidation attracts most of the attention due to its significance in regulation of inflammation, cell proliferation and death programs. Despite their apparent regulatory significance, the molecular repertoire of oxidi...

Ferroptosis is a form of cell death that has received considerable attention not only as a means to eradicate defined tumour entities but also because it provides unforeseen insights into the metabolic adaptation exploited by tumours to counteract phospholipid oxidation. Here, we identify a pro-ferroptotic activity of 7-dehydrocholesterol reductase...

Obesity, characterized by expansion and metabolic dysregulation of white adipose tissue (WAT), has reached pandemic proportions and acts as a primer for a wide range of metabolic disorders. Remodeling of WAT lipidome in obesity and associated comorbidities can explain disease etiology and provide valuable diagnostic and prognostic markers. To suppo...

Lipidomics increasingly describes the quantification using mass spectrometry of all lipids present in a biological sample. As the power of lipidomics protocols increase, thousands of lipid molecular species from multiple categories can now be profiled in a single experiment. Observed changes due to biological differences often encompass large numbe...

Background Improvements in mass spectrometry (MS) technologies coupled with bioinformatics developments have allowed considerable advancement in the measurement and interpretation of lipidomics data in recent years. Since research areas employing lipidomics are rapidly increasing, there is a great need for bioinformatic tools that capture and utili...

Lipid peroxidation (LPO) is the molecular mechanism involved in oxidative damage of cellular membranes and the hallmark of a nonapoptotic form of cell death, known as ferroptosis. This iron-dependent cell death is an emerging strategy in cancer treatment and one of the central cell death mechanisms accounting for early cell loss and organ dysfuncti...

The cytoskeleton is a supramolecular structure consisting of interacting protein networks that support cell dynamics in essential processes such as migration and division, as well as in responses to stress. Fast cytoskeletal remodeling is achieved with the participation of regulatory proteins and posttranslational modifications (PTMs). Redox-relate...

Cellular and organismal redox imbalance leading to the accumulation of reactive oxygen species significantly enhances lipid peroxidation (LPO). LPO is relatively well studied for phospholipid membranes and to some extent for circulating lipoproteins. However, it is rarely addressed for intracellular lipid droplets (LDs). Here we optimized an in vit...

In the eye lens cell membrane, the lipid composition changes during the aging process: the proportion of sphingomyelins (SM) increases, that of phosphatidylcholines decreases. To investigate the protective role of the SMs in the lens cell membrane against oxidative damage, analytical techniques such as electrochemistry, high-resolution mass spectro...

The cytoskeleton is a supramolecular structure consisting of interacting protein networks that support cell dynamics in essential processes such as migration and division, as well as in responses to stress. Fast cytoskeletal remodeling is achieved with the participation of regulatory proteins and posttranslational modifications (PTMs). Redox-relate...

Obesity, characterized by expansion and metabolic dysregulation of white adipose tissue (WAT), has reached pandemic proportions and acts as a primer for a wide range of metabolic disorders. Remodelling of WAT lipidome in obesity and associated comorbidities can explain disease etiology and provide valuable diagnostic and prognostic markers. To supp...

Lipidomics increasingly describes the quantitation using mass spectrometry of all lipids present in a biological sample. As the power of lipidomics protocols increase, thousands of lipid molecular species from multiple categories can now be profiled in a single experiment. Observed changes due to biological differences often encompass large numbers...

A comprehensive and standardized system to report lipid structures analyzed by mass spectrometry is essential for the communication and storage of lipidomics data. Herein, an update on both the LIPID MAPS classification system and shorthand notation of lipid structures is presented for lipid categories Fatty Acyls (FA), Glycerolipids (GL), Glycerop...

Free radical driven lipid peroxidation is a chain reaction which can lead to oxidative degradation of biological membranes. Propagation vs. termination rates of peroxidation in biological membranes are determined by a variety of factors including fatty acyl chain composition, presence of antioxidants, as well as biophysical properties of mono- or b...

Modern high throughput lipidomics provides large-scale datasets reporting hundreds of lipid molecular species. However, cross-laboratory comparison and systems biology integration of published datasets remain challenging due to the high diversity of used lipid annotation systems. To support lipidomics data integration and usability of publicly avai...

Lipidomics analysis for large-scale studies aiming at the identification and quantification of natural lipidomes is often performed using LC–MS-based data acquisition. However, the choice of suitable LC–MS method for accurate lipid quantification remains a matter of debate. Here, we performed the systematic comparison between two HRAM-MS-based quan...

Proteasome inhibitors have great success for their therapeutic potential against hematologic malignancies. First generation proteasome inhibitor bortezomib induced peripheral neuropathy is considered as a limiting factor in chemotherapy and its second-generation counterpart carfilzomib is associated with lower rates of neurotoxicity. The mitochondr...

Natural lipidomes represent a complex mixture of lipid molecular species with a variety of biological and signaling functions. Modern mass spectrometry (MS)-based analytical platforms are often used to resolve the complexity of natural lipidomes. The quantitative transfer of lipid molecular species in the gas phase during the electrospray ionizatio...

Complementary to other imaging techniques, MALDI MS imaging provides label-free analysis and chemical specificity, covering a wide range of molecules that can be visualized simultaneously. Here, we highlight a protocol to visualize lipids from single cardiac cells using high-resolution atmospheric-pressure matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionizatio...

Genipin, a natural compound from Gardenia jasminoides, is a well-known compound in Chinese medicine that is used for the treatment of cancer, inflammation, and diabetes. The use of genipin in classical medicine is hindered because of its unknown molecular mechanisms of action apart from its strong cross-linking ability. Genipin is increasingly appl...

Oxidized LDL (oxLDL) has been shown to play a crucial role in the onset and development of cardiovascular disorders. The study of oxLDL, as an initiator of inflammatory cascades, led to the discovery of a variety of oxidized phospholipids (oxPLs) responsible for pro-inflammatory actions. Oxidized 1-palmitoyl-2-arachidonoyl-sn-glycero-3-phosphocholi...

Cold atmospheric plasma (CAP) is an emerging source for the locally defined delivery of reactive species, and its clinical potential has been identified in the control of inflammatory processes, such as acute and chronic wounds, or cancerous lesions. Lipids, due to their localization and chemical structure as ideal targets for oxidative species, ar...

Cells employ multiple defence mechanisms to sustain a wide range of stress conditions associated with accumulation of modified self-biomolecules leading to lipo- and proteotoxicity. One of such mechanisms involves activation of the autophagy-lysosomal pathway for removal and degradation of modified lipids, proteins and even organelles. Biomolecules...

Lipids are susceptible to damage by reactive oxygen species, and from lipid oxidation reactions many short chain lipid peroxidation products can be formed. 4-Hydroxy-2-nonenal (HNE) is one of the most abundant and cytotoxic lipid oxidation products and is known to form covalent adducts with nucleophilic amino acids of proteins. HNE-modified protein...

The aminophospholipids (APL), phosphatidylethanolamine (PE) and phosphatidylserine (PS) are widely present in cell membranes and lipoproteins. Glucose and reactive oxygen species (ROS), such as the hydroxyl radical (•OH), can react with APL leading to an array of oxidised, glycated and glycoxidised derivatives. Modified APL have been implicated in...

The high chemical diversity of lipids allows them to perform multiple biological functions ranging from serving as structural building blocks of biological membranes to regulation of metabolism and signal transduction. In addition to the native lipidome, lipid species derived from enzymatic and non-enzymatic modifications (the epilipidome)make the...

Natural lipidomes are characterized by extremely high complexity and dynamic range of lipid concentrations. Furthermore, high diversity of lipid physicochemical properties requires high resolving powers for both chromatographic and mass spectrometric analytical platforms. Reverse-phase chromatography coupled with data-dependent MS/MS acquisition is...

Lipids represent a very diverse group of compounds with a high variety of physicochemical properties determining their functional activities. For omics-wide identification of lipid species from complex biological samples, several crucial analytical steps including extraction, chromatographic separation and mass spectrometry analysis need to be care...

Cytochrome c (cyt c) is a small hemoprotein involved in electron shuttling in the mitochondrial respiratory chain and is now also recognized as an important mediator of apoptotic cell death. Its role in inducing programmed cell death is closely associated with the formation of a complex with the mitochondrion-specific phospholipid cardiolipin (CL),...

Ultraviolet light is the dominant environmental oxidative skin stressor and a major skin aging factor. We studied which oxidized phospholipid (OxPL) mediators would be generated in primary human keratinocytes (KC) upon exposure to ultraviolet A light (UVA) and investigated the contribution of OxPL to UVA responses. Mass spectrometric analysis immed...

Lipid droplets (LDs) are inducible cellular organelles that have a pivotal role in physiological processes. Depending on their size and host cell type they serve functions ranging from lipid storage (e.g. in adipocytes), cytoprotection (in non-adipose tissue) and inflammation (in macrophages and leukocytes).[1] LD are micelles consisting of a neutr...

Lipid peroxidation is an enzymatic or non-enzymatic transformation of polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs) leading to the formation of various lipid peroxidation products (LPPs) including low molecular weight aldehydes (i.e. 4-hydroxy-trans-2- nonenal, acrolein), truncated lipids (i.e. alkanals, alkenals), and hydroxy-alka(e)nals), isoprostanes, hyd...

Many human diseases, including obesity, diabetes and atherosclerosis, are accompanied by chronic inflammation and closely connected to oxidative stress (OS). OS can oxidize virtually all biomolecules of which lipids represent one of the most prominent targets. Lipid peroxidation products (LPPs) are chemically diverse group of biomolecules with a va...

Lipid peroxidation products (LPPs) generated by oxidative stress (OS) have been recognized as biomarkers of numerous human disorders including atherosclerosis, neurodegenerative diseases, type 2 diabetes, chronic inflammation, aging, and cardiovascular diseases. To evaluate the effect of OS and related LPPs on cardiac system, rat primary cardiomyoc...

Many human diseases, including obesity, diabetes and atherosclerosis, are accompanied by chronic inflammation and closely connected to oxidative stress (OS). OS can oxidize virtually all biomolecules of which lipids represent one of the most prominent targets. Lipid peroxidation products (LPPs) are chemically diverse group of biomolecules with a va...

Nitrogen fixation is an agronomically and environmentally important process catalyzed by bacterial nitrogenase within legume root nodules. These unique symbiotic organs have high metabolic rates and produce large amounts of reactive oxygen species that may modify proteins irreversibly. Here, we examined two types of oxidative posttranslational modi...

Recently, the complex of cytochrome c (cyt c), a small heme mitochondrial protein, with mitochondria specific lipid cardiolipin (CL) was linked to the control of apoptotic cell death. Under apoptotic conditions cyt c - CL complex exhibits peroxidase activity, leading to the formation of CL- hydroperoxides. CL-hydroperoxides promote cyt c release to...

Pathogenesis of obesity and related metabolic diseases is closely associated with redox disbalance and production of oxidized lipids. Oxidized lipids affect all main cell populations in adipose tissue, their adipokine secretion and themselves can act as an active lipokines triggering autocrine and paracrine signaling. Obesity associate adipocyte hy...

Obesity has reached epidemic proportions in modern societies with a prevalence of more than 20% of the population and has been recognized as a risk factor for numerous metabolic disorders including type 2 diabetes, cardiometabolic, liver and renal diseases. Onset and disease progression is closely associated with metabolic reconfiguration of white...

Ultraviolet light is the dominant environmental oxidative skin stressor and a major factor in skin aging. We studied which oxidized phospholipid (OxPL) species would be generated in primary human keratinocytes (KC) upon exposure to ultraviolet A light (UVA) and investigated the contribution of OxPL to UVA responses. Mass spectrometric analysis reve...

Aims: High levels of glucose and reactive carbonyl intermediates of its degradation pathway such as methylglyoxal (MG) may contribute to diabetic complications partly via increased generation of reactive oxygen species (ROS). This study focused on glutathione peroxidase-1 (GPx1) expression and the impact of carbonylation as an oxidative protein mo...

Phosphatidylethanolamines (PEs) are widely present in cellular membranes and lipoproteins. Oxidation of PEs fatty acyl chains generates several oxidized products, exerting a vast number of biological functions, not totally unveiled yet. In vitro biomimetic models have been used to identify oxidized PEs and to develop analytical strategies for their...

Oxidized phospholipids (oxPLs) have been recently recognized as important mediators of various and often controversial cellular functions and stress responses. Due to the low concentrations in vivo, oxPL detection is mostly performed by targeted mass spectrometry. Although significantly improving the sensitivity, this approach does not provide a co...