Department of Chemistry, Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, Missouri 63110, USA.
Nat Rev Mol Cell Biol. 2012 Mar 22;13(4):263-9. doi: 10.1038/nrm3314.
Metabolites, the chemical entities that are transformed during metabolism, provide a functional readout of cellular biochemistry. With emerging technologies in mass spectrometry, thousands of metabolites can now be quantitatively measured from minimal amounts of biological material, which has thereby enabled systems-level analyses. By performing global metabolite profiling, also known as untargeted metabolomics, new discoveries linking cellular pathways to biological mechanism are being revealed and are shaping our understanding of cell biology, physiology and medicine.
代谢物是在代谢过程中转化的化学实体,提供了细胞生物化学的功能读数。随着质谱技术的不断涌现,现在可以从极少量的生物材料中定量测量数千种代谢物,从而实现了系统水平的分析。通过进行全局代谢物谱分析,也称为非靶向代谢组学,可以发现将细胞途径与生物机制联系起来的新发现,并正在改变我们对细胞生物学、生理学和医学的理解。