title: Metabolome analysis for discovering biomarkers of gastroenterological cancer.
abstract: Improvements in analytical technologies have made it possible to rapidly determine the concentrations of thousands of metabolites in any biological sample, which has resulted in metabolome analysis being applied to various types of research, such as clinical, cell biology, and plant/food science studies. The metabolome represents all of the end products and by-products of the numerous complex metabolic pathways operating in a biological system. Thus, metabolome analysis allows one to survey the global changes in an organism's metabolic profile and gain a holistic understanding of the changes that occur in organisms during various biological processes, e.g., during disease development. In clinical metabolomic studies, there is a strong possibility that differences in the metabolic profiles of human specimens reflect disease-specific states. Recently, metabolome analysis of biofluids, e.g., blood, urine, or saliva, has been increasingly used for biomarker discovery and disease diagnosis. Mass spectrometry-based techniques have been extensively used for metabolome analysis because they exhibit high selectivity and sensitivity during the identification and quantification of metabolites. Here, we describe metabolome analysis using liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry, gas chromatography-mass spectrometry, and capillary electrophoresis-mass spectrometry. Furthermore, the findings of studies that attempted to discover biomarkers of gastroenterological cancer are also outlined. Finally, we discuss metabolome analysis-based disease diagnosis.
authors.affiliation: Division of Gastroenterology, Department of Internal Medicine, Kobe University Graduate School of Medicine, Kobe, Japan.
authors.forename: Makoto
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Suzuki
authors.affiliation: Division of Gastroenterology, Department of Internal Medicine, Kobe University Graduate School of Medicine, Kobe, Japan.
authors.forename: Shin
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Nishiumi
authors.affiliation: Division of Gastroenterology, Department of Internal Medicine, Kobe University Graduate School of Medicine, Kobe, Japan.
authors.forename: Atsuki
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Matsubara
authors.affiliation: Division of Gastroenterology, Department of Internal Medicine, Kobe University Graduate School of Medicine, Kobe, Japan.
authors.forename: Takeshi
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Azuma
authors.affiliation: Division of Gastroenterology, Department of Internal Medicine, Kobe University Graduate School of Medicine, Kobe, Japan; The Integrated Center for Mass Spectrometry, Kobe University Graduate School of Medicine, Kobe, Japan; Division of Metabolomics Research, Department of Internal Medicine related, Kobe University Graduate School of Medicine, Kobe, Japan. Electronic address: myoshida@med.kobe-u.ac.jp.
authors.forename: Masaru
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Yoshida
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor / Q000032:analysis*; D002851:Chromatography, High Pressure Liquid; D004067:Digestive System Neoplasms / Q000097:blood / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000652:urine; D008401:Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry; D006801:Humans; D013058:Mass Spectrometry; D055442:Metabolome; D055432:Metabolomics / Q000379:methods*; D009062:Mouth Neoplasms / Q000097:blood / Q000378:metabolism / Q000652:urine
chemical_list: D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor
keywords: Biomarker; Cancer; Diagnosis; Metabolome analysis; Metabolomics; Serum