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Review
. 2017 Apr;10(2):e000032.
doi: 10.1161/HCG.0000000000000032.

Potential Impact and Study Considerations of Metabolomics in Cardiovascular Health and Disease: A Scientific Statement From the American Heart Association

Susan Cheng, Svati H Shah, Elizabeth J Corwin, Oliver Fiehn, Robert L Fitzgerald, Robert E Gerszten, Thomas Illig, Eugene P Rhee, Pothur R Srinivas, Thomas J Wang, Mohit Jain; American Heart Association Council on Functional Genomics and Translational Biology; Council on Cardiovascular and Stroke Nursing; Council on Clinical Cardiology; and Stroke Council
Review

Potential Impact and Study Considerations of Metabolomics in Cardiovascular Health and Disease: A Scientific Statement From the American Heart Association

Susan Cheng et al. Circ Cardiovasc Genet. 2017 Apr.

Abstract

Through the measure of thousands of small-molecule metabolites in diverse biological systems, metabolomics now offers the potential for new insights into the factors that contribute to complex human diseases such as cardiovascular disease. Targeted metabolomics methods have already identified new molecular markers and metabolomic signatures of cardiovascular disease risk (including branched-chain amino acids, select unsaturated lipid species, and trimethylamine-N-oxide), thus in effect linking diverse exposures such as those from dietary intake and the microbiota with cardiometabolic traits. As technologies for metabolomics continue to evolve, the depth and breadth of small-molecule metabolite profiling in complex systems continue to advance rapidly, along with prospects for ongoing discovery. Current challenges facing the field of metabolomics include scaling throughput and technical capacity for metabolomics approaches, bioinformatic and chemoinformatic tools for handling large-scale metabolomics data, methods for elucidating the biochemical structure and function of novel metabolites, and strategies for determining the true clinical relevance of metabolites observed in association with cardiovascular disease outcomes. Progress made in addressing these challenges will allow metabolomics the potential to substantially affect diagnostics and therapeutics in cardiovascular medicine.

Keywords: AHA Scientific Statements; cardiovascular diseases; metabolome; metabolomics.

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Conflict of interest statement

The American Heart Association makes every effort to avoid any actual or potential conflicts of interest that may arise as a result of an outside relationship or a personal, professional, or business interest of a member of the writing panel. Specifically, all members of the writing group are required to complete and submit a Disclosure Questionnaire showing all such relationships that might be perceived as real or potential conflicts of interest.

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