Issue 3, 2021

Metabolomics in infectious diseases and drug discovery

Abstract

Metabolomics has emerged as an invaluable tool that can be used along with genomics, transcriptomics and proteomics to understand host–pathogen interactions at small-molecule levels. Metabolomics has been used to study a variety of infectious diseases and applications. The most common application of metabolomics is for prognostic and diagnostic purposes, specifically the screening of disease-specific biomarkers by either NMR-based or mass spectrometry-based metabolomics. In addition, metabolomics is of great significance for the discovery of druggable metabolic enzymes and/or metabolic regulators through the use of state-of-the-art flux analysis, for example, via the elucidation of metabolic mechanisms. This review discusses the application of metabolomics technologies to biomarker screening, the discovery of drug targets in infectious diseases such as viral, bacterial and parasite infections and immunometabolomics, highlights the challenges associated with accessing metabolite compartmentalization and discusses the available tools for determining local metabolite concentrations.

Graphical abstract: Metabolomics in infectious diseases and drug discovery

Article information

Article type
Review Article
Submitted
20 Jan 2021
Accepted
12 Apr 2021
First published
12 Apr 2021
This article is Open Access
Creative Commons BY license

Mol. Omics, 2021,17, 376-393

Metabolomics in infectious diseases and drug discovery

V. Tounta, Y. Liu, A. Cheyne and G. Larrouy-Maumus, Mol. Omics, 2021, 17, 376 DOI: 10.1039/D1MO00017A

This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported Licence. You can use material from this article in other publications without requesting further permissions from the RSC, provided that the correct acknowledgement is given.

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