Single-Cell Metabolomics by Mass Spectrometry for Drug Discovery: Moving Forward

Metabolomics is one omics approach that can be used to acquire comprehensive information on the composition of a metabolite pool to provide a functional screen of the cellular state. Single-cell metabolomics is proving useful at the molecular level for major biological research in drug development. One of the main goals of single-cell metabolomics research is to gain knowledge of cellular interaction with and in response to environmental influences on a molecular level, through a comprehensive understanding of cellular functions. In this short review, we discuss the importance of single-cell metabolomics, the concentrations of metabolites in cells, single-cell isolation, analytical methodologies for single-cell metabolomics, future prospects and a possible strategy for studying single-cell metabolomics by combining Fluorescence-activated cell sorting (FACS), Cytometry by time-of-flight (CyTOF) and Liquid Chromatography with tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS).