Centre for Molecular Therapeutics, Australian Institute of Tropical Health and Medicine, James Cook University, Cairns, QLD, 4878, Australia.
Metabolomics. 2023 Jun 25;19(7):63. doi: 10.1007/s11306-023-02019-5.
Helminths are parasitic worms that infect millions of people worldwide and secrete a variety of excretory-secretory products (ESPs), including proteins, peptides, and small molecules. Despite this, there is currently no comprehensive review article on cataloging small molecules from helminths, particularly focusing on the different classes of metabolites (polar and lipid molecules) identified from the ESP and somatic tissue extracts of helminths that were studied in isolation from their hosts.
This review aims to provide a comprehensive assessment of the metabolomics and lipidomics studies of parasitic helminths using all available analytical platforms.
To achieve this objective, we conducted a meta-analysis of the identification and characterization tools, metabolomics approaches, metabolomics standard initiative (MSI) levels, software, and databases commonly applied in helminth metabolomics studies published until November 2021.
This review analyzed 29 studies reporting the metabolomic assessment of ESPs and somatic tissue extracts of 17 helminth species grown under ex vivo/in vitro culture conditions. Of these 29 studies, 19 achieved the highest level of metabolite identification (MSI level-1), while the remaining studies reported MSI level-2 identification. Only 155 small molecule metabolites, including polar and lipids, were identified using MSI level-1 characterization protocols from various helminth species. Despite the significant advances made possible by the 'omics' technology, standardized software and helminth-specific metabolomics databases remain significant challenges in this field. Overall, this review highlights the potential for future studies to better understand the diverse range of small molecules that helminths produce and leverage their unique metabolomic features to develop novel treatment options.
寄生虫是感染全世界数百万人的寄生蠕虫，它们会分泌各种排泄-分泌产物（ESP），包括蛋白质、肽和小分子。尽管如此，目前还没有关于寄生虫小分子的综合综述文章，特别是针对从寄生虫 ESP 和体组织提取物中鉴定不同类别的代谢物（极性和脂质分子）的研究，这些研究都是在与宿主分离的情况下进行的。
本综述旨在全面评估使用所有可用分析平台对寄生性蠕虫的代谢组学和脂质组学研究。
为了实现这一目标，我们对截至 2021 年 11 月发表的寄生虫代谢组学研究中常用的鉴定和表征工具、代谢组学方法、代谢组学标准倡议（MSI）水平、软件和数据库进行了荟萃分析。
本综述分析了 29 项研究报告，这些研究评估了 17 种寄生虫在离体/体外培养条件下的 ESP 和体组织提取物的代谢组学。在这 29 项研究中，有 19 项达到了最高的代谢物鉴定水平（MSI 水平-1），而其余的研究报告了 MSI 水平-2 的鉴定。仅使用来自各种寄生虫物种的 MSI 水平-1 特征化方案鉴定了 155 种小分子代谢物，包括极性和脂质。尽管“组学”技术取得了重大进展，但标准化软件和寄生虫特异性代谢组学数据库仍然是该领域的重大挑战。总的来说，本综述强调了未来研究有潜力更好地了解寄生虫产生的各种小分子，并利用其独特的代谢组学特征来开发新的治疗方法。
