Over the past few months I have been writing a chapter on "Metabolite Profiling" for the forthcoming book, New Horizons in Predictive Drug Metabolism and Pharmacokinetics (Royal Society of Chemistry, 2015).
I began the chapter with one of my favorite quotes related to drug metabolism:
“In order to understand the actions of drugs it is an absolute necessity to have knowledge of the transformations they undergo in the body…we must not judge drugs according to the form and amount administered, but rather according to the form and amount which actually is eliciting the action.”
From where did this sage advice arise? Another recent book on metabolite profiling? No. A regulatory guidance document? No.
In fact, this statement was written more than 150 years ago, in 1859, by Rudolph Buchheim (1820-79), a pioneer in experimntal pharmacology.
The quote appeals to me for several reasons; first, as someone interested in the history of chemistry and science; second - and more important - because it lays out as elegantly as any modern statement the very mission and importance of drug metabolism ("form") and pharmacokinetics ("amount") and pharmacology ("action"), especially the role of metabolite profiling and identification.
Though the basic mission has not changed over the past 150 years, what has evolved is the tools at our disposal to execute that mission. I've witnessed some of that evolution in my nearly 30-year career in xenobiotic metabolite profiling, isolation, characterization, and identification, especially the shrinking footprint (and cost) of high resolution mass spectrometry and improved in silico tools for data mining and prediction.
What do you see as potential advances (or unmet needs) in metabolite profiling and identification technologies in the coming years?
Way to go, Son-in-law!!!
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