Metabolomics in Atherosclerosis

Publication date: Available online 3 December 2014 Source:IJC Metabolic & Endocrine Author(s): Demir Djekic , Rachel Nicoll , Mehmed Novo , Michael Henein It is well established that atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease (ACD) is a leading cause of death in the West. There are several predisposing factors for ACD, which can be divided into two groups: firstly modifiable risk factors, including hypertension, dyslipidaemia, type 2 diabetes mellitus, obesity, smoking and a sedentary lifestyle and secondly the unmodifiable risk factors such as age, gender and heredity. Since single biomarkers are unable to provide sufficient information about the biochemical pathways responsible for the disease, there is a need for a holistic approach technology, e.g. metabolomics, that provide sufficiently detailed information about the metabolic status and assay results will be able to guide food, drug and lifestyle optimisation. Rather than investigating a single pathway, metabolomics deal with the integrated identification of biological and pathological molecular pathways. Mass spectrometry (MS) and nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy are the two most commonly used techniques for metabolite profiling. This detailed review concluded that metabolomics investigations seem to have great potential in identifying small groups of disturbed metabolites which if put together should draw various metabolic routs that lead to the common track pathophysiology. The current eviden...
Source: IJC Metabolic and Endocrine - Category: Endocrinology Source Type: research