Future of liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry in metabolic profiling and metabolomic studies for biomarker discovery

The future utility of liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (LC-MS) in metabolic profiling and metabolomic studies for biomarker discovery is discussed, beginning with a brief description of the evolution of metabolomics and the utilization of the three most popular analytical platforms in such studies: nuclear magnetic resonance, gas chromatography-MS and LC-MS. Emphasis is placed on recent developments in high-efficiency LC separations, sensitive electrospray ionization approaches and the benefits of incorporating both in LC-MS-based approaches. The advantages and disadvantages of various quantitative approaches are reviewed, followed by the current LC-MS-based tools available for candidate biomarker characterization and identification. Finally, a brief prediction on the future path of LC-MS-based methods in metabolic profiling and metabolomic studies is given.