Potential of in vitro nuclear magnetic resonance of biofluids and tissues in clinical research

Body fluids, cells, and tissues contain a wide variety of metabolites that consist of a mixture of various low-molecular-weight compounds, including amino acids, peptides, lipids, nucleic acids, and organic acids, which makes comprehensive analysis more difficult. Quantitative nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy is a well-established analytical technique for analyzing the metabolic profiles of body fluids, cells, and tissues. It enables fast and comprehensive detection, characterization, a high level of experimental reproducibility, minimal sample preparation, and quantification of various endogenous metabolites. In recent times, NMR-based metabolomics has been appreciably utilized in diverse branches of medicine, including microbiology, toxicology, pathophysiology, pharmacology, nutritional intervention, and disease diagnosis/prognosis. In this review, the utility of NMR-based metabolomics in clinical studies is discussed. The significance of in vitro NMR-based metabolomics as an effective tool for detecting metabolites and their variations in different diseases are discussed, together with the possibility of identifying specific biomarkers that can contribute to early detection and diagnosis of disease.