Abstract
Scientists often set ambitious targets using environmental metabolomics to address challenging ecotoxicological issues. This promising approach has a high potential to elucidate the mechanisms of action (MeOAs) of contaminants (in hazard assessments) and to develop biomarkers (in environmental biomonitoring). However, metabolomics fingerprints often involve a complex mixture of molecular effects that are hard to link to a specific MeOA (if detected in the analytical conditions used). Given these promises and limitations, here we propose an updated review on the achievements of this approach. Metabolomics-based studies conducted on the effects of pharmaceutical active compounds in aquatic organisms provide a relevant means to review the achievements of this approach, as prior knowledge about the MeOA of these molecules could help overcome some shortcomings. This review highlighted that current metabolomics advances have enabled more accurate MeOA assessment, especially when combined with other omics approaches. The combination of metabolomics with other measured biological endpoints has also turned out to be an efficient way to link molecular effects to (sub)-individual adverse outcomes, thereby paving the way to the construction of adverse outcome pathways (AOPs). Here, we also discuss the importance of determining MeOA as a key strategy in the identification of MeOA-specific biomarkers for biomonitoring. We have put forward some recommendations to take full advantage of environmental metabolomics and thus help fulfil these promises.
Highlights
Since the early 21st century, scientists often set ambitious targets using environmental metabolomics to address challenging ecotoxicological issues
Numerous reviews on environmental metabolomics have underlined the high potential of this approach: (i) to gain insight into the specific mechanisms of action (MeOAs) through which contaminants achieve adverse outcomes at higher biological organization levels in comprehensive hazard or risk assessments, and (ii) to develop robust metabolic biomarkers of effects or exposure as an environmental biomonitoring tool [1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8]
When differential metabolomics analyses are applied to measure changes in metabolite abundance in organism responses to contaminant exposure, the observed changes correspond to the overall molecular effect, which is directly related to the MeOA of the contaminants, and to all processes that are geared towards maintaining cellular homeostasis under stress conditions [9]
Summary
Numerous reviews on environmental metabolomics have underlined the high potential of this approach: (i) to gain insight into the specific mechanisms of action (MeOAs) through which contaminants achieve adverse outcomes at higher biological organization levels (e.g., cellular, organ, and individual) in comprehensive hazard or risk assessments, and (ii) to develop robust metabolic biomarkers of effects or exposure as an environmental biomonitoring tool [1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8] This potential is based on the fact that metabolomics has the advantage of providing a high sensitivity (i.e., low levels of metabolites can be measured), high assessment efficiency (i.e., a broad range of metabolites may be measured without a priori), and comprehensive evaluation (i.e., provides an overview of molecular effects, reflecting the physiological status of the organism) [4,5]. This review offers some recommendations with regard to the current literature, so as to help researchers take full advantage of this approach
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