Twenty Years on: Metabolomics in Helminth Research

This contribution makes a critical assessment of the metabolomics application to helminthic infection research. To ensure a cross-comparison of the results published by different laboratories over a period of almost two decades, we restrict the discussion to only the publications where nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy is used as the analytical platform. We review the metabolites consistently reported for the body fluids of animals infected with the parasitic helminths and the characteristic metabolic patterns, arguing that the field needs a complete integration of metabolomics into research lines that examine host-helminth interactions.