Recent advances and applications of metabolomics to investigate neurodegenerative diseases

Metabolomics is gaining an important role in the investigation of neurological pathologies such as Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease, and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis which are characterized by the absence of reliable diagnostic markers. The magnitude of emotional, physical, and financial burden related to these three devastating pathologies can be deduced considering that nearly 20 million people worldwide suffer from these three pathologies. In this chapter, an overview of the recent advances and applications of metabolomics to investigate these major neurodegenerative diseases will be presented. Metabolomics strategies are now being developed to map potential perturbations in biochemical pathways linked to neurodegeneration. Going further, there is more and more evidence supporting the concept that these pathologies can begin years or even decades before the onset of clinical symptoms, and thus, metabolomics is also increasingly being used to discover preclinical biomarkers of these neurological diseases.