Mass Spectrometry-Based Metabolomics in Health and Disease: Targeted Analysis

Dear Colleagues,

Metabolomics is a fascinating and growing field that aims to identify and quantify small molecules derived from cell and body metabolism. Biomarker discovery, drug discovery, toxicological testing, and clinical and preclinical studies are areas in which metabolomics plays a key role.

The nature of the metabolites, particularly their complexity and heterogeneity, the dynamic range of the measurement technique, the extraction protocols, and the myriad of variables related to the variation in these metabolites, remains as the main challenge. However, metabolomics is a very powerful approach for the characterisation of metabolites and metabolic pathways in health and disease, reflecting the results of the complex network of biochemical reactions that occur in living systems. Here, chromatography coupled with mass spectrometry (MS)-based metabolomics is the gold standard due to its beneficial bioanalytic performance characteristics such as high selectivity and high sensitivity, providing innovative tools for novel diagnostic and prognostic approaches. In this context, targeted analysis is key to analyse measurable metabolites in biological samples or a set of preselected metabolites. However, many challenges need to be overcome, including the proper validation of methods, sample selection and quality control, and complex statistical data analysis. Therefore, new mass spectrometry-based metabolomics methods and the discovery of interesting biomarkers are the main targets of this Special Issue.

Dr. Emanuele Porru
Guest Editor

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• mass spectrometry
• metabolomics
• metabolic diseases
• chromatography
• biomarkers