Current State and Future Perspectives on Personalized Metabolomics

Abstract

Metabolomics is one of the most promising ‘omics’ sciences for the implementation in medicine by developing new diagnostic tests and optimizing drug therapy. Since in metabolomics, the end products of the biochemical processes in an organism are studied, which are under the influence of both genetic and environmental factors, the metabolomics analysis can detect any changes associated with both lifestyle and pathological processes. Almost every case-controlled metabolomics study shows a high diagnostic accuracy. Taking into account that metabolomics processes are already described for most nosologies, there are prerequisites that a high-speed and comprehensive metabolite analysis will replace, in near future, the narrow range of chemical analyses used today, by the medical community. However, despite the promising perspectives of personalized metabolomics, there are currently no FDA-approved metabolomics tests. The well-known problem of complexity of personalized metabolomics data analysis and their interpretation for the end-users, in addition to a traditional need for analytical methods to address the quality control, standardization, and data treatment are reported in the review. Possible ways to solve the problems and change the situation with the introduction of metabolomics tests into clinical practice, are also discussed.