Metabolomics: a tool for anticancer lead-finding from natural products

Area of Science:

• Natural Product Drug Discovery
• Medicinal Chemistry
• Pharmacology

Background:

• Natural products are a vital source of anticancer drugs, with over 50% originating from nature.
• Conventional lead-finding methods are laborious, leading to decreased attention towards natural products.
• A novel strategy is required to overcome the current stagnation in natural product research.

Purpose of the Study:

• To review the potential of metabolomics in identifying active compounds from natural products, specifically for anticancer drug discovery.
• To illustrate the application of metabolomics through IN SILICO and IN SITU approaches.
• To highlight the role of metabolomics in improving the efficiency of natural product-based drug discovery.

Main Methods:

• Review of current methods for detecting anticancer activity in natural products.
• Exploration of metabolomics applications in cancer research for comprehensive metabolite profiling.
• Introduction of IN SILICO and IN SITU metabolomics approaches for natural product analysis.

Main Results:

• Metabolomics provides a holistic approach for simultaneous detection of various metabolites.
• Cancer research applications of metabolomics offer comprehensive data for the IN SITU approach.
• The review illustrates the potential of metabolomics in identifying novel anticancer compounds.

Conclusions:

• Metabolomics can overcome limitations in traditional natural product drug discovery.
• This approach has the potential to reinstate natural products as a prolific source of anticancer drugs.
• Metabolomics is poised to significantly improve the efficiency of lead-finding from natural sources.