Title:Volatilome Metabolomics and Databases, Recent Advances and Needs
Volume: 5
Issue: 2
Author(s): Raquel Cumeras*
Affiliation:
- Raquel Cumeras C/Aragó 53- 55, 08015, Barcelona,Spain
Keywords:
Volatile organic compound, metabolomics, volatilomics, databases, disease, healthy.
Abstract: Background: Metabolomics is leaving a gold era, and volatilomics is finding its niche due
to its non-invasiveness. Volatilomics is the totality of Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs) produced
by all living organisms (plants, animals, etc.), the analyses of those volatiles can offer, amongst others,
the possibility of rapid diagnoses of patients using non-invasive techniques. However, the lack of a
central core database of volatilome is a drawback when identifying the biological output of experimental
identified metabolites.
Objective: Give an accurate state-of-the-art insight of volatilomics, by revising the published reviews
since 2014, giving an accurate list of studied diseases within volatilomics and finally, a detailed list of
available VOC databases.
Methods: Recent progress in the volatile metabolomics development, applications and databases are
reviewed
Results: What are VOC’s, depending on their context or sector. Volatilome is extensively explained
and analyzed the VOC etiology (endogenous/exogenous), with special interest in the human volatilome.
The amount of review articles (48) published since 2014 indicates that volatilomic is on its
height (or ascending) momentum. Biofluid sources and diseases studied are reviewed. Also, we mention
what are the current trends of volatilomics in systems biology and precision medicine. Finally, the
steps involved in the data analysis and the available volatilome databases are resumed.
Conclusion: The advances in volatile metabolomics are increasing, and a broad spectrum of human
diseases or disorders are being interrogated, so the need of detailed databases list of both healthy and
disease metabolites is increasing.
