Abstract
Metabolomics, the global study of metabolites, has recently emerged as a promising approach for identification of potential diagnostic and treatment response biomarkers for psychotic disorders. To date, numerous studies have utilised metabolomics to better understand psychotic disorders and findings from these studies have begun to converge. In this review, we briefly describe the metabolomics approach including the different platforms used to analyse metabolites in biological samples from patients. We also summarise promising metabolic and pharmaco-metabolic biomarkers reported in the current psychotic disorder literature, which point to the dysregulation of fatty acid metabolism and the imbalance in oxidants/antioxidants that is present at illness onset. Finally, we conclude with a commentary on the challenges and future contribution of the metabolomics approach within the larger biomarker discovery framework currently being utilised in the field of psychiatry.
Highlights
One of the earliest biomarker approaches in psychiatry [1] employed chromatography to detect a urinary metabolite [3,4-dimethoxyphenylethylamine, later identified as p-tyramine [2]] that formed a controversial “pink spot” on paper chromatographs among those with schizophrenia but not controls
In this review we briefly describe the metabolomics approach, summarise promising metabolic and pharmacometabolic biomarkers reported in the current psychotic disorder literature, and conclude with commentary on the challenges and future contribution of the metabolomics approach within the larger biomarker discovery frame work currently being utilised in the field of psychiatry
Cerebrospinal Fluid (CSF); cerebrospinal fluid, ELISA; enzyme-linked Immunosorbent assay, FIA-MS;Flow Injection Analysis/Thermospray Mass Spectrometry,Gas Chromatography with Mass Spectroscopy (GC-MS); gas chromatography-mass spectrometry, HPLC; high performace liquid chromatography, LC-TOF-MS; liquid chromatography-time of fight-mass spectrometry,NMR; nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy, SZ; schizophrenia, UPLC-MS/MS;ultra-performance liquid chromatography−tandem mass spectrometry metabolites that were significantly dysregulated included those in fatty acid metabolism pathways for both serum and urine, supporting the results from previous studies and demonstrating that antipsychotics are unlikely to be wholly responsible for changes in fatty acids
Summary
One of the earliest biomarker approaches in psychiatry [1] employed chromatography to detect a urinary metabolite [3,4-dimethoxyphenylethylamine, later identified as p-tyramine [2]] that formed a controversial “pink spot” on paper chromatographs among those with schizophrenia but not controls. The global study of metabolites (i.e., metabolomics) has emerged as a promising approach for identification of potential diagnostic and treatment response biomarkers for psychotic disorders.
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