Metabolic Pathway Disruption

Metabolic pathway disruption describes the process by which normal metabolic pathways are dysregulated, resulting in altered metabolite profiles, enzyme activities, or pathway fluxes. This term is used in biomedical research to indicate the disturbance of metabolic homeostasis in diseases such as cancer, diabetes, and neurodegeneration, or as an effect/mechanism of drugs acting on metabolic enzymes or transporters. Drug discovery efforts frequently focus on identifying specific molecular targets (e.g., enzymes, transporters) whose modulation reverses or compensates these disruptions, thereby restoring metabolic balance[1][6][3][4][7][8]. However, "metabolic pathway disruption" is not a targetable entity—it is a systems-level concept that guides target identification rather than acting as the target itself.

Other names

Metabolic pathway dysregulationAltered metabolism