Chapter 5 - Nuclear magnetic resonance in metabolomics
Abstract
Nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) is one of the most common and powerful
techniques used in metabolomics. The inherent quantitative,
nondestructive, and nonbiased properties, together with minimal sample
preparation/manipulation make NMR a potent approach to any investigative
metabolic study involving biological systems. NMR spectroscopy offers
several unique monitoring opportunities such as extremely high
reproducibility, relatively short experiment times, a wide range of
available experiments (e.g., multidimensional and multinuclear based),
and advanced highly automated robotic sample handling/exchange
technologies enabling potentially hundreds of samples per instrument in a
single day.
In this chapter, we highlight the primary advantages and limitations of
NMR spectroscopy, introduce the most commonly applied NMR experiments in
metabolomics, and review some of the recent advances with selected
examples of novel applications, such as high-resolution magic-angle
spinning for tissue samples, and pure shift NMR method as an example of a
promising new approach that can be used to overcome the overlapping of
1D NMR spectra. The main advantages of NMR spectroscopy with a
particular focus on reproducibility are also presented.