Mass Spectrometry in Medical Research
Metabolics is an emerging approach to cardiovascular biomarker research. Through the use of metabolic approaches based on chemistry, the metabolic properties that underlie a variety of cardiovascular disease (CVD) states can be analyzed (Senn, et al., 2012). Biomarkers are currently identified in biospecimens according to quantified protein-based end products, rather than representing the disease states by the metabolomics profiles that characterize the disease (Senn, et al., 2012). The literature shows use of both open (unbiased) and closed (targeted) approaches to "identifying, describing, and verifying metabolic differences between disease and nondisease conditions" (Senn, et al., 2012). The use of metabolomics profiling, without evidence of traditional risk factors, is being used to learn more about mortality due to cardiovascular disease, as well as myocardial infarction and stroke (Senn, et al., 2012).
Cardiovascular disease (4-6 sentences are enough)
The leading cause of mortality and morbidity in developed nations is cardiovascular disease (CVD) (Barallobre-Barreiro, et al., 2013). The current state of cardiovascular medicine requires reliance on commonly known and quite well understood conventional risk factors: Age, diabetes, gender, hypertension, and smoking (Barallobre-Barreiro, et al., 2013). A considerable difficulty associated with these risk factors is their prevalence in the general population, which results in high prediction failure rates for a majority of CVD cases over a 10-year period; this is true with even the best available algorithms for acute coronary events (Barallobre-Barreiro, et al., 2013). Moreover,...
The current use of biomarker assessment is based on quantification of a handful of metabolites or proteins.
Metabolomics
The science of metabolomics is the systematic study of the "unique chemical fingerprints of small molecules or metabolite profiles that are related to a variety of cellular metabolic processes in a cell, organ, or organism" (Senn, et al., 2012). The creation of metabolic profiles enables direct and indirect insights into the detectable physiology of a broad range of biospecimens (Senn, et al., 2012). Metabolic profiling provides information that exceeds what is made available through processes that, for instance, provide messenger RNA gene expression data and proteomic analyses (Senn, et al., 2012).
Metabolics have been used in both "open" and "closed" profiles. Raw data is the product of open profiling as the analysis is untargeted (Senn, et al., 2012). While the untargeted approach can lead to the discovery of new or previously unrecognized disease processes, the lack of specificity may contribute to difficulties in efforts to understand disease pathways (Senn, et al., 2012). Because of this difficulty, some experts assert that, "the patterns may just be noise rather than signal" (Senn, et al., 2012, p, 72). Alternately, closed or targeted analysis focuses on a limited set of metabolites, which results in more purposeful examinations (Senn, et al., 2012). The significance of targeted profiling is that it enables the validation of a biomarker following…
