| 摘要 |
A method of investigating a biochemical pathway, especially a biochemical pathway treated with a test substance which is being considered as a potential drug, in order to predict its effects, comprises the steps of: storing, e.g. in computer memory a set of mathematical expressions which are effective to calculate values representing pre-selected metabolite concentrations in a reference biochemical pathway from an initial value representing the measured concentration of one metabolite in that reference biochemical pathway; assaying the concentration of one or more metabolites in one or more test samples of a second biochemical pathway containing the same metabolites as the reference pathway, and storing values representing the measured concentrations; using said mathematical expressions to calculate a predicted value of concentration of at least one metabolite in the second biochemical pathway from an initial value representing the measured concentration of one metabolite in the second pathway; comparing such predicted values with corresponding values representing measured metabolite concentrations to obtain a comparison relationship; and deriving a quality measure of the match between two biochemical pathways on the basis of the comparison relationship. Also included in the invention are apparatus for carrying out the method and a computer memory product carrying at least one digital file which is a program to carry out the method.
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