Nuclear magnetic resonance metabonomics: methods for drug discovery and development

• Published in: Methods in molecular biology (Clifton, N.J.) Vol. 358; p. 247
• Main Authors: Ott, Karl-Heinz, Aranibar, Nelly
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States 2007
• Subjects: Animals; Blood Specimen Collection - methods; Data Interpretation, Statistical; Drug Design; Epithelial Cells - metabolism; Feces - chemistry; Hepatocytes - metabolism; Humans; Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy - methods; Plant Extracts - analysis; Plant Extracts - isolation & purification; Plant Leaves - metabolism; Principal Component Analysis - methods; Rats; Software; Tissue Extracts - analysis; Tissue Extracts - isolation & purification; Urine - chemistry; Zea mays - growth & development; Zea mays - metabolism
• ISSN: 1064-3745
• DOI: 10.1007/978-1-59745-244-1_14

Nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR)-based metabonomics is gaining popularity in drug discovery and development and in academia in a variety of settings, ranging from toxicology, preclinical, and clinical approaches to nutrition research, studies on microorganisms, and research on plants. This chapter focuses on the basic steps in a metabonomics study and emphasizes experience and lessons learned in our lab where we focused on metabonomic analyses of plant extracts, cell lines, and a variety of animal tissues and biofluids. We emphasize that a comprehensive and suitable study design is pivotal for a correct biological interpretation of the results, as well as highly controlled experimental conditions. Sample preparation and NMR protocols are detailed for a wide range of sample types. We discuss alternative data processing strategies and considerations for a general data analysis approach, paying particular attention to the statistical interpretation and validation of the results while also highlighting approaches to avoid possible pitfalls resulting from systematic and random errors. A tutorial written for the R statistical package and other small utilities are available from the authors upon request.