Title:Can Untargeted Metabolomics Be Utilized in Drug Discovery/Development?
VOLUME: 17 ISSUE: 24
Author(s):Gary W. Caldwell* and Gregory C. Leo
Affiliation:Janssen Research and Development, 1400 Welsh and McKean Roads, Spring House, PA 19477, Janssen Research and Development, Welsh and McKean Roads, Spring House, PA 19477
Keywords:Drug Discovery, Preclinical, Clinical, Metabolome, Metabolomics, GC/MS, LC/MS, NMR, Platform Comparison,
Targeted, Untargeted, Footprinting, Flux, Univariate, Multivariate.
Abstract:Untargeted metabolomics is a promising approach for reducing the significant attrition
rate for discovering and developing drugs in the pharmaceutical industry. This review aims to highlight
the practical decision-making value of untargeted metabolomics for the advancement of drug
candidates in drug discovery/development including potentially identifying and validating novel
therapeutic targets, creating alternative screening paradigms, facilitating the selection of specific
and translational metabolite biomarkers, identifying metabolite signatures for the drug efficacy
mechanism of action, and understanding potential drug-induced toxicity. The review provides an
overview of the pharmaceutical process workflow to discover and develop new small molecule
drugs followed by the metabolomics process workflow that is involved in conducting metabolomics
studies. The pros and cons of the major components of the pharmaceutical and metabolomics
workflows are reviewed and discussed. Finally, selected untargeted metabolomics literature examples,
from primarily 2010 to 2016, are used to illustrate why, how, and where untargeted metabolomics
can be integrated into the drug discovery/preclinical drug development process.
