Conclusion and perspective
Elaborate investigation at the metabolic level is particularly
important to understand role of metabolism in parasitism
and pathogenesis, and also to develop new
chemotherapies against pathogens, in which metabolic
processes dissimilar to those from humans are reasonable
drug targets. Furthermore, as profound metabolic disturbances
often underlie the microbicidal effects of drugs, the
mode of drug action can be easily and rationally probed by
metabolomics approaches. Metabolomics also allows elucidation
of the mechanisms of drug resistance of parasites.
Discoveries of new metabolic biomarkers in infected
humans may also yield reliable diagnostic measures (diagnostics),
predictors of treatment outcome (e.g. drug resistance),
and related clinical polymorphisms (e.g. severity of
disease, tissue tropisms). An understanding of metabolic
networks of parasites will be further improved by combining
metabolomic analysis with other profiling technologies,
especially proteomics, and integrative techniques
like metabolic control analysis [54].