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Healthy Or Diseased? Analysis Of Body's Metabolism Sheds New Light On The Question

Date:
July 5, 2008
Source:
Helmholtz Zentrum München - German Research Center for Environmental Health
Summary:
Scientists have shown that biological indicators for diseases caused or influenced by environmental factors can be detected by the systemic analysis of the body's metabolism (metabolomics). The procedure presented here is also suitable for pre-clinical drug testing and allows for the early detection of possible side effects of a new medication.
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Scientists from the Institute for Bioinformatics and Systemic Biology of the Helmholtz Zentrum München and the Faculty for Biology of the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität have shown that biological indicators for diseases caused or influenced by environmental factors can be detected by the systemic analysis of the body’s metabolism (metabolomics).

The procedure presented here is also suitable for pre-clinical drug testing and allows for the early detection of possible side effects of a new medication.

Metabolomics aims to determine the totality of all small molecules of a cell or a tissue. The exponents of bioinformatics analyzed data collected in the framework of a pre-clinical metabolomics study in healthy and diabetic mice. In each case, a subgroup of the animals was treated with the diabetes drug RoziglitazoneTM. Then, more than 800 metabolites were quantitatively determined in a blood plasma sample of a total of forty mice, representing the factors "healthy/diabetic" and "treated/untreated".

Karsten Suhre, who led the work at the Helmholtz Zentrum München, explains the results: "It transpired that in many cases the ratios between the concentrations of certain metabolites were much more informative than their absolute concentrations." By a subsequent clustering of the test statistics of such metabolite pairs, it is possible to identify groups of metabolites which discriminate the animals by the factors "healthy/diabetic" or "treated/untreated".

The present results show that diabetes-biomarkers can be identified by means of an objective bioinformatics analysis of complex metabolomics data obtained in high-throughput experiments. Suhre added: "This bioinformatics approach can be used, in conjunction with the new metabolomics technology platform (metaP) at the Helmholtz Zentrum München, for the automatic identification of groups of relevant biomarkers of disease. Additionally, with the pre-clinical investigation of the effect of new drugs, metabolomics permits for the early identification of possible side effects on the metabolism.

Hitherto, genetic methods and/or transcription analyses stood rather to the fore in the investigation of metabolic diseases. Now, advances in the area of mass spectroscopy allow for the extensive examination of the metabolome. "With this recent quantum leap in the area of metabolite analysis, the challenge to bioinformatics is to develop customized, numerical evaluation methods to handle the complexity of these high quantity metabolomic data sets", explains Karsten Suhre.


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Materials provided by Helmholtz Zentrum München - German Research Center for Environmental Health. Note: Content may be edited for style and length.


Journal Reference:

  1. Altmaier et al. Bioinformatics Analysis of Targeted Metabolomics%u2014Uncovering Old and New Tales of Diabetic Mice under Medication. Endocrinology, (2008) 149(7): 3478-3489 DOI: 10.1210/en.2007-1747

Cite This Page:

Helmholtz Zentrum München - German Research Center for Environmental Health. "Healthy Or Diseased? Analysis Of Body's Metabolism Sheds New Light On The Question." ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 5 July 2008. <www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/07/080702094554.htm>.
Helmholtz Zentrum München - German Research Center for Environmental Health. (2008, July 5). Healthy Or Diseased? Analysis Of Body's Metabolism Sheds New Light On The Question. ScienceDaily. Retrieved March 29, 2024 from www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/07/080702094554.htm
Helmholtz Zentrum München - German Research Center for Environmental Health. "Healthy Or Diseased? Analysis Of Body's Metabolism Sheds New Light On The Question." ScienceDaily. www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/07/080702094554.htm (accessed March 29, 2024).

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