Emerging Applications of Metabolomics in Clinical Pharmacology

Metabolic disturbances have been associated with many human diseases, including cancer, diabetes, and cardiovascular disease. Metabolomics, a rapidly growing member of the -omics family, investigates cellular metabolism by quantifying metabolites on a large scale and provides a link between metabolic pathways and the upstream genome that governs them. With the advances in analytical technologies, metabolomics is becoming a powerful tool for identifying diagnostic biomarkers of diseases, elucidating the pathological mechanisms, discovering novel drug targets, predicting drug responses, interpreting the mechanisms of drug action, as well as enabling precision treatment of patients. In this review, we highlight the recent advances of technologies and methodologies in metabolomics and their applications to the field of clinical pharmacology. Recent publications from 2013 to 2018 are covered in the review, and current challenges and potential future directions in the field are also discussed.