What Have Metabolomics Approaches Taught Us About Type 2 Diabetes?

Abstract

Type 2 diabetes (T2D) is increasing worldwide, making identification of biomarkers for detection, staging, and effective prevention strategies an especially critical scientific and medical goal. Fortunately, advances in metabolomics techniques, together with improvements in bioinformatics and mathematical modeling approaches, have provided the scientific community with new tools to describe the T2D metabolome. Among the metabolomics signatures associated with T2D and obesity include increased levels of lactate, glycolytic intermediates, branched-chain and aromatic amino acids, and long-chain fatty acids. Conversely, tricarboxylic acid cycle intermediates, betaine and other metabolites decrease. Future studies will be required to fully integrate these and other findings into our understanding of the diabetes pathophysiology and to identify biomarkers of disease risk, stage, and responsiveness to specific treatments.

Comprehensive Metabolomic Analysis in Blood, Urine, Fat, and Muscle in Men with Metabolic Syndrome: A Randomized, Placebo-Controlled Clinical Trial on the Effects of Resveratrol after Four Months’ Treatment

“…Metabolomics has the advantage over other “omics” that it integrates changes in gene expression, protein levels, enzymatic activity, and post-translational changes. Previously, metabolomics made it possible to determine changes in the human plasma metabolome caused by various conditions and diseases like sleep restriction [11,12], diabetes [13], and bariatric surgery [14]. …”

Antidiabetic and Lipid‐Lowering Effects of the Polyphenol Extracts from the Leaves of Clausena lansium (Lour.) Skeels on Streptozotocin‐Induced Type 2 Diabetic Rats

“…The change in bodies observed in T2DM rats might be the result of protein wasting due to unavailability of carbohydrate for utilisation as an energy source (Chen and Ianuzzo ). Blood glucose is the primary index to determine the diabetic condition and evaluate the degree of control DM (Gonzalez‐Franquesa and others ). Before administering treatment, the FBG level of T2DM rats was more than 11.1mmol/L.…”

Linking of metabolomic biomarkers with cardiometabolic health in Chinese population

“…In contrast, the advantages of MS, usually coupled with GC or liquid chromatography (LC) for analyte separation, are a wider detection range with higher sensitivity. Nevertheless, isotopic standards for absolute quantitation and sample destruction before measuring are usually required for MS platforms . Besides, the strategies of metabolomics include targeted and untargeted approaches, depending on the objectives of different studies .…”

“…4,11,68 Besides, the strategies of metabolomics include targeted and untargeted approaches, depending on the objectives of different studies. 68 In general, targeted approaches can accurately quantify the concentrations of specific metabolites, which is more suitable for hypothesis-driven studies. In contrast, untargeted approaches can detect relative concentrations of a wider range of metabolites, including those unable to be identified at present, offering a unique opportunity to discover novel biomarkers.…”