Metabolomics and its application to studying metal toxicity

Metallomics. 2011 Nov;3(11):1142-52. doi: 10.1039/c1mt00070e. Epub 2011 Sep 16.

Abstract

Here we explain the omics approach of metabolomics and how it can be applied to study a physiological response to toxic metal exposure. This review aims to educate the metallomics field to the tool of metabolomics. Metabolomics is becoming an increasingly used tool to compare natural and challenged states of various organisms, from disease states in humans to toxin exposure to environmental systems. This approach is key to understanding and identifying the cellular or biochemical targets of metals and the underlying physiological response. Metabolomics steps are described and overviews of its application to metal toxicity to organisms are given. As this approach is very new there are yet only a small number of total studies and therefore only a brief overview of some metal metabolomics studies is described. A frank critical evaluation of the approach is given to provide newcomers to the method a clear idea of the challenges and the rewards of applying metabolomics to their research.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
  • Review

MeSH terms

  • Animals
  • Bacteria / drug effects
  • Bacteria / metabolism
  • Computational Biology
  • Environmental Pollutants / toxicity
  • Heavy Metal Poisoning
  • Humans
  • Metabolomics*
  • Metals / toxicity*
  • Nuclear Magnetic Resonance, Biomolecular
  • Plants / drug effects
  • Plants / metabolism
  • Poisoning*

Substances

  • Environmental Pollutants
  • Metals