Clinical Metabolomics: A Pivotal Tool for Companion Diagnostic Development and Precision Medicine

Expert Review of Molecular Diagnostics. 2017 May;17(5):411-413

Vladimir Tolstikov, Viatcheslav R. Akmaev, Rangaprasad Sarangarajan, Niven R. Narain, Michael A. Kiebish

Companion diagnostics are useful in determining a positive or negative response to a particular treatment. Clinical metabolomics is an essential tool in precision medicine. Metabolomics measures the levels of breakdown products (known as metabolites) of normal and diseased cellular processes. With advances in detection technology, many different molecules can be measured from clinical samples, allowing the classification of patients into different groups for treatment. There is a clinical need for the rapid detection of changes associated with disease onset or severity, and the effect of therapeutic interventions. Changes in metabolites are faster than genetic or protein responses and can be measured from numerous types of biofluid samples. Combining metabolic information with clinical outcome can produce biomarkers with enhanced precision for diagnosis, disease monitoring and the effects of drug toxicity.

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