Metabolomic-guided discovery of Alzheimer's disease biomarkers from body fluid

The rapid increase in the older population has made age-related diseases like Alzheimer's disease (AD) a global concern. Given that there is still no cure for this neurodegenerative disease, the drastic growth in the number of susceptible individuals represents a major emerging threat to public health. The poor understanding of the mechanisms underlying AD is deemed the greatest stumbling block against progress in definitive diagnosis and management of this disease. There is a dire need for biomarkers that can facilitate early diagnosis, classification, prognosis, and treatment response. Efforts have been directed toward discovery of reliable and distinctive AD biomarkers but with very little success. With the recent emergence of high-throughput technology that is able to collect and catalogue vast datasets of small metabolites, metabolomics offers hope for a better understanding of AD and subsequent identification of biomarkers. This review article highlights the potential of using multiple metabolomics platforms as useful means in uncovering AD biomarkers from body fluids. © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.