Clinical Application of Metabolomics Analysis Technology

Abstract

Metabolomics, one of the ‘-omics’ technologies that involve modern chemical instruments and chemometrics analysis, is used to characterize the compositional patterns in samples. We examined whether several clinical problems could be identified using gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS)-based metabolomics analysis. It has been reported that dogs are capable of identifying cancer in humans by detecting a specific odor. We examined whether bladder cancer could be detected by GC/MS-based metabolomics analysis of urine odor. Our findings indicate the potential to screen bladder cancer by analyzing this odor. The eicosapentaenoic acid ethyl ester (EPA-E) formulation is a drug derived from fish oil. Some EPA-E formulations have a unique odor that depends on the manufacturing process and the type of sardine raw materials used. This odor is thought to affect the compliance of some patients. Here, we report our assessment of the odors for several EPA-E formulations using GC/MS analysis. The GC/MS measurements revealed the presence of 1-heptadecanal and 1-eicosanal in some formulations, which are presumed to be oxidation decomposition products. We observed differences between formulations in the score plots as a result of modified metabolomics analysis. The odors arising from decomposition products may therefore influence the compliance of patients.