title: Metabolomics in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis: how far can it take us?
abstract: Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is the most common adult-onset motor neuron disease. Alongside identification of aetiologies, development of biomarkers is a foremost research priority. Metabolomics is one promising approach that is being utilized in the search for diagnosis and prognosis markers. Our aim is to provide an overview of the principal research in metabolomics applied to ALS. References were identified using PubMed with the terms 'metabolomics' or 'metabolomic' and 'ALS' or 'amyotrophic lateral sclerosis' or 'MND' or 'motor neuron disorders'. To date, nine articles have reported metabolomics research in patients and a few additional studies examined disease physiology and drug effects in patients or models. Metabolomics contribute to a better understanding of ALS pathophysiology but, to date, no biomarker has been validated for diagnosis, principally due to the heterogeneity of the disease and the absence of applied standardized methodology for biomarker discovery. A consensus on best metabolomics methodology as well as systematic independent validation will be an important accomplishment on the path to identifying the long-awaited biomarkers for ALS and to improve clinical trial designs.
authors.affiliation: Inserm U930, Tours, France.|Université François-Rabelais, Tours, France.|Laboratoire de Biochimie et Biologie Moléculaire, CHRU de Tours, Tours, France.
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Blasco
authors.affiliation: Inserm U930, Tours, France.|Université François-Rabelais, Tours, France.|Laboratoire de Biochimie et Biologie Moléculaire, CHRU de Tours, Tours, France.
authors.forename: F
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Patin
authors.affiliation: Inserm U930, Tours, France.|Université François-Rabelais, Tours, France.
authors.forename: B
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Madji Hounoum
authors.affiliation: Northern Navajo Medical Center, Shiprock, NM, USA.
authors.forename: P H
authors.initials: PH
authors.lastname: Gordon
authors.affiliation: Inserm U930, Tours, France.|Université François-Rabelais, Tours, France.|Laboratoire de Biochimie et Biologie Moléculaire, CHRU de Tours, Tours, France.
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Vourc'h
authors.affiliation: Inserm U930, Tours, France.|Université François-Rabelais, Tours, France.|Laboratoire de Biochimie et Biologie Moléculaire, CHRU de Tours, Tours, France.
authors.forename: C R
authors.initials: CR
authors.lastname: Andres
authors.affiliation: Inserm U930, Tours, France.|Université François-Rabelais, Tours, France.|Centre SLA, Service de Neurologie, CHRU Bretonneau, Tours, France.
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Corcia
mesh_terms: D000690:Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis / Q000378:metabolism*; D006801:Humans; D055432:Metabolomics / Q000379:methods* / Q000592:standards
keywords: amyotrophic lateral sclerosis; biomarkers; diagnosis; metabolomics; prognosis