الفهرس | Only 14 pages are availabe for public view |
Abstract Metabolomics is a new field of research in bioinformatics, which has deals with studying of the metabolites in any biological sample. This field mainly detects metabolites biomarkers in the biological samples for many changes, which can occur inside the cells even before appearance of any phenotypical changes. This new fieldP allows early, rapid, simple and non-invasive evaluation for the response of the living cells to the external and internal stimuli. The human metabolome includes a large number of metabolites, which are variable in their chemical nature, molecular weights and concentration with large number of unidentified compounds. This is a great challenge for the researchers in the metabolomics studies. The metabolomics data mainly depend on NMR and GC-MS based studies. Each technique has its advantages and disadvantages, but GC-MS data are more familiar and easier to the toxicological scientists. The obtained data are further analyzed. These studies are difficult, expensive, requiring much training and equipment. Metabolomics studies are mainly financially supported by industries with the academic community just now starting to catch up without governmental financial support, because the new science is still unclear and its applications remain uncertain to be satisfactory. The non-toxicological fields of metabolomics applications are mainly summarized as environmental, clinical and biomedical applications. Metabolomics studies have a great impact in field of ecotoxicology and environmental monitoring. Also metabolomics allows early, simple and non-invasive diagnosis of many diseases and allows monitoring of the therapeutic response. Toxicological applications mainly consider the preclinical evaluation of the new therapeutic agents. The applications in this erra mainly involve screening for toxicities, detection of biomarkers of safety and understanding the underlying mechanisms of toxicities. All these applications are avialable in metabolomics study through simple, non-invasive techniques allowing the preclinical evaluation. The limitations of the newly emerging metabolomics can not be bypassed. Large number of metabolites which differ in their natures and concentrations, difficult statistical analysis of the data, complexed technology, high cost and uncertainity about the results are the main limitations. Also, multiple physiological factors may affect the data. Metabolomics will probably not acheive all expectations, but it will certainly add value in many areas of biology. In particular, the technology has shown significant promise in numerous applications in toxicological sciences. |