NMR spectroscopy based metabolic profiling of drug induced changes in vitro can discriminate between pharmacological classes

• Drug induced changes in mammalian cell line models have already been extensively profiled at the systemic mRNA level and subsequently used to suggest mechanisms of action for new substances as well as to support drug repurposing, i.e. identifying new potential indications for drugs already licensed for other pharmacotherapy settings. The seminal work in this field, which includes a large database and computational algorithms for pattern matching, is known as the “Connectivity Map” (CMap). The potential of similar exercises at the metabolite level is, however, still largely unexplored. Only recently the first high throughput metabolomic assay pilot study was published, involving screening of metabolic response to a set of 56 kinase inhibitors in a 96-well format. Here we report results from a separately developed metabolic profiling assay, which leverages 1H NMR spectroscopy to the quantification of metabolic changes in the HCT116 colorectal cancer cell line, in response to each of 26 compounds. These agents are distributed across 12 different pharmacological classes covering a broad spectrum of bioactivity. Differential metabolic profiles, inferred from multivariate spectral analysis of 18 spectral bins, allowed clustering of most tested drugs according to their respective pharmacological class. A more advanced supervised analysis, involving one multivariate scattering matrix per pharmacological class and using only 3 spectral bins (three metabolites), showed even more distinct pharmacology-related cluster formations. In conclusion, this kind of relatively fast and inexpensive profiling seems to provide a promising alternative to that afforded by mRNA expression analysis, which is relatively slow and costly. As also indicated by the present pilot study, the resulting metabolic profiles do not seem to provide as information rich signatures as those obtained using systemic mRNA profiling, but the methodology holds strong promise for significant refinement.

Subject headings

MEDICIN OCH HÄLSOVETENSKAP  -- Klinisk medicin -- Cancer och onkologi (hsv//swe)

MEDICAL AND HEALTH SCIENCES  -- Clinical Medicine -- Cancer and Oncology (hsv//eng)

Publication and Content Type

ref (subject category)

art (subject category)