A Metabolite Array Technology for Precision Medicine

The application of metabolomics in translational research suffers from several technological bottlenecks, such as data reproducibility issues and the lack of standardization of sample profiling procedures. Here, we report an automated high-throughput metabolite array technology that can rapidly and quantitatively determine 324 metabolites including fatty acids, amino acids, organic acids, carbohydrates, and bile acids. Metabolite identification and quantification is achieved using the Targeted Metabolome Batch Quantification (TMBQ) software, the first cross-vendor data processing pipeline. A test of this metabolite array was performed by analyzing serum samples from patients with chronic liver disease (N = 1234). With high detection efficiency and sensitivity in serum, urine, feces, cell lysates, and liver tissue samples and suitable for different mass spectrometry systems, this metabolite array technology holds great potential for biomarker discovery and high throughput clinical testing. Additionally, data generated from such standardized procedures can be used to generate a clinical metabolomics database suitable for precision medicine in next-generation healthcare.代谢组学（metabolomics）在转化研究中的应用面临多项技术瓶颈，诸如数据可重复性不足、样本代谢谱分析流程缺乏标准化等问题。本研究报道了一种自动化高通量代谢物芯片技术，可快速定量检测324种代谢物，涵盖脂肪酸、氨基酸、有机酸、碳水化合物及胆汁酸。代谢物的鉴定与定量可通过靶向代谢组批量定量（Targeted Metabolome Batch Quantification，TMBQ）软件完成，该软件为首个跨厂商数据处理管线。本研究通过分析1234例慢性肝病患者的血清样本，对该代谢物芯片开展了验证测试。该代谢物芯片技术在血清、尿液、粪便、细胞裂解液及肝组织样本中均展现出优异的检测效率与灵敏度，且适配多种质谱系统，在生物标志物发现及高通量临床检测领域具备巨大应用潜力。此外，通过该标准化流程产生的数据可用于构建面向下一代医疗的精准医学临床代谢组学数据库。