MitoLiPox - a targeted mass spectrometry probe to assess mitochondrial lipid peroxidation

Mitochondrial lipid peroxidation is central to cell death by ferroptosis in many pathologies. However, measuring this process is challenging. As part of a Wellcome Trust - funded collaboration led by Mike Murphy at the MBU and Richard Hartley at Glasgow this has been addressed by developing a mitochondria-targeted probe, MitoLiPox. In this work, led by Shinpei Uno, with collaborators including David Rubinsztein and Angie Fleming, and published in Cell Chemical Biology, we showed that this new probe can be used to assess mitochondrial lipid peroxidation and ferroptosis in cells and zebrafish embryos. This approach will facilitate future developments in exploring cell death and mitochondrial dysfunction in areas from cancer to neurodegeneration.

Publication Reference:

Uno et al., Assessment of mitochondrial lipid peroxidation in cells and zebrafish using a targeted mass spectrometry probe, Cell Chemical Biology (2026), https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chembiol.2026.05.015 / https://www.cell.com/cell-chemical-biology/fulltext/S2451-9456(26)00194-7