Metabolomics—The Popular Research Field of Life Sciences in the Next 5 Years

In recent years, scientists have become increasingly concerned about metabolomics, and a large number of articles on metabolomics have been published. Metabolomics has become another important research field after genomics, transcriptomics and proteomics.

The concept of metabolomics was originally proposed by professors from Imperial College of Science and Technology in the United Kingdom, including Professor Nicholson. They proposed that the quantitative determination of dynamic multiparametric metabolic responses caused by pathophysiology or genetic alterations in biological systems is metabolomics. Metabolomics focuses on the changes in small molecules in the body's metabolic processes, which can reflect the response of cells or tissues to external stimuli or genetic changes.

The existence of a metabolic process occurs in the presence of life, and the various small molecular substances produced in the metabolic process are an important medium for understanding changes in life. Metabolomics, as an important research tool, can capture the dynamic changes of this medium into science. Research and practical applications provide information. At present, metabolomics has been researched and applied in many research fields, such as disease diagnosis, pathogenesis research, modernization of Chinese medicine, drug toxicology and safety evaluation, plants, microorganisms, environment, nutrition and so on.

Metabolomics - a diagnostic tool for future doctors

Compared with genetic and protein research, in-depth study of the body's metabolites can determine whether the body is in a normal state, and many companies have found through market research that healthy people do not want genotyping, so there are significant limitations to the application in genomics clinically. While, metabolomics requires less personal information and is less expensive to accept. Researchers can also screen metabolites by metabolomics and then further study them through genomics and proteomics.

Presently, metabolomics researchers have studied some diseases. The occurrence of phenylketonuria (PKU) is mainly due to the absence of the phenylalanine hydrolase gene necessary for the hydrolysis of phenylalanine to tyrosine, resulting in the accumulation of phenylalanine in blood. If the disease is not detected within nine months of the baby's birth, it can cause serious damage to the baby's brain. The disease can be diagnosed by simple blood and urea tests, and blood samples and urea tests will become part of the metabolic fingerprinting method. Researchers not only hope to find markers for disease diagnosis, but also hope to find a cure for the disease by means of metabolomics.

Cancer is a kind of disease that threatens human health in modern society. Under the combined effects of genetic factors, unhealthy lifestyles and harsh living environment, the incidence of cancer continues to break through people's perception. For cancer patients, early detection of early treatment is the most effective way to overcome cancer to save lives, but the diagnosis of most cancers still relies mainly on medical imaging methods, lacking reliable diagnostic markers. In 2009, Nature published a research report on biomarkers of prostate cancer based on GC/MS metabolomics research by researchers at the Howard Hughes Medical School of the University of Michigan. The researchers systematically analyzed the metabolomes in serum, tissue, and urine samples from patients with prostate cancer. A total of 262 clinical samples were selected from 42 patients with prostate cancer (59 biopsy positives and 51 biopsy negative controls). 110 urine and plasma were differentiated from benign prostate cancer, clinically localized prostate cancer, and metastatic cancer by metabolite differences.

The study found that sarcosine is high in invasive prostate cancer tissue, and the authors tested urine samples from positive and negative biopsies, which often have elevated prostate antigen levels. In other words, a negative biopsy can not completely rule out the absence of cancer. This also shows that sarcosine is important for judging prostate cancer metastasis. In this study, genetic techniques were also used to knock out the enzyme that produces glycine to produce sarcosine. It was found that knocking out the enzyme that produces sarcosine will greatly reduce the malignant degree of prostate cancer. In turn, exogenously add sarcosine or reduce myo-ammonium. Acid dehydrogenase will cause deterioration of benign epithelial cells of the prostate. This suggests that sarcosine may play an important role in cancer cell metastasis, and the sarcosine metabolic pathway may become a new target for prostate cancer treatment.

Therefore, for solid tumors, we can use metabolomics to screen biomarkers. We can also use non-solid tumors. A study on the mechanism of glucose metabolism in acute myeloid leukemia (AML) published in the Blood in 2014 found that the higher the glycolytic metabolic activity of patients with acute myeloid leukemia (AML), the worse their survival. The team obtained plasma metabolome data from two groups (test group: 229 AML patients and 260 control plasma samples; validation group: 171 AML patients and 233 control plasma samples). Using non-targeted metabolomics technology, they found 6 metabolites in 100 metabolites with significant differences among the groups. Among them, the content of glycerol-3-phosphate, lactic acid and citric acid in serum of AML patients was significantly lower than that of the control, while pyruvate and? - Ketoglutaric acid and 2-HG were significantly increased in AML patients. These six metabolites were further combined to assess prognosis in patients with AML. Patient survival (OS) and event-free (EFS) with lactic acid, pyruvic acid,?-ketoglutaric acid, 2-HG, and glycerol-3-phosphate were negatively correlated, but positively correlated with the citric acid content. The findings of these six biomarkers are important for the prognostic evaluation of acute myeloid leukemia (AML).

Prime Jones is a senior researcher from MtoZ Biolabs. She is specialized in the field of proteomics study.