Clinical Applications of Pharmacometabonomics in Neurology: Current Status, Future Perspectives and Challenges

Abstract

Background: Pharmacometabonomics is a new approach developed in the delivery of personalized medicine to improve optimal drug efficacy and safety to patients. We summarized the literature regarding the application of pharmacometabonomics in neurology. Methods: We conducted a systematic search of the literature using Medline via PubMed, from the inception of the database to April 2020. Other articles were searched from the manual search of the included articles. Other information was retrieved from Google Scholar. Data from the included articles were reviewed and summarized based on neurological disorder/drug, experiment employed and clinical application. Results: The search of the literature generated 258 articles, of which 10 were included for review based on the selection criteria. The review of the literature demonstrates that pharmacometabonomics has been used in the prediction of drug efficacy, adverse drug events, and metabolisms in neurological toxicity, schizophrenia, multiple sclerosis, major depressive and bipolar disorders. The commonly employed pharmacometabonomics methods were liquid chromatography coupled with electrochemical coulometric, mass spectrometry, nuclear magnetic resonance, and gas chromatography. Conclusion: Earlier evidence has demonstrated that pharmacometabonomics has the potential of improving drug safety in neurology, through the delivery of personalized medicine. Therefore, more studies are needed to explore its clinical applications in other areas of neurology for optimal outcomes.