Metabolomics in Systems Toxicology: Towards Personalized Medicine

Abstract

Metabolomics along with systems biology technologies such as transcriptomics and proteomics has the capability of providing translational diagnostic, prognostic and mechanistic biomarkers of drug-induced injury. Metabolomics has several advantages over the other omics platforms, such as ease of sample preparation, data acquisition and use of biofluids collected through minimally invasive procedures in pre-clinical and clinical studies. The role of metabolomics in systems toxicology is reviewed and examples of metabolomics in pre-clinical and clinical studies are provided. The role of metabolomics in personalized medicine is provided with special sections focusing on drug–drug and drug–nutrient interactions, metabolic fluxes and challenge tests. Keywords: metabolomics; metabonomics; metabolic fluxes; biomarkers; personalized medicine; systems biology