ReviewStrategies for metabolite profiling based on liquid chromatography

- The principal strategies for metabolite profiling based on LC are revised.
- Sample treatment, separation and detection issues are addressed.
- Chemometric applications for evaluation of metabolic profiling are given.
- Representative examples of different possibilities are provided.

This paper aims at covering the principal strategies based on liquid chromatography (LC) for metabolite profiling in the field of drug discovery and development. The identification of metabolites generated in the organism is an important task during the early stages of preclinical research to define the most proper strategy for optimizing, adjusting metabolic clearance and minimizing bioactivation. An early assessment of the metabolite profile may be critical since metabolites can contribute to pharmacological and/or toxicological effects. The study of metabolites first involves their synthesis/generation and their further characterization and structural elucidation. For such a purpose, both in vitro and in vivo methods are commonly used for the generation of the corresponding metabolites. Next, analytical methods are used to tackle identification and characterization studies. Among the arsenal of techniques available in our labs, we will focus on LC, especially coupled to mass spectrometry (LC-MS), as one of the most powerful approaches for metabolite identification, characterization and quantification. Here, the topic of metabolite profiling based on LC will be addressed and representative examples of different possibilities will be discussed.