Acylcarnitines are important markers in metabolic studies of many diseases, including metabolic, cardiovascular, and neurological disorders. We reviewed analytical methods for analyzing acylcarnitines with respect to the available structural information, the technical limitations of older methods, and the potential of new mass spectrometry-based techniques to provide new information on metabolite structure. We summarized the nomenclature of acylcarnitines based on historical common names and common abbreviations, and we propose the use of systematic abbreviations derived from the shorthand notation for lipid structures. The transition to systematic nomenclature will facilitate acylcarnitine annotation, reporting, and standardization in metabolomics. We have reviewed the metabolic origins of acylcarnitines important for the biological interpretation of human metabolomic profiles. We identified neglected isomers of acylcarnitines and summarized the metabolic pathways involved in the synthesis and degradation of acylcarnitines, including branched-chain lipids and amino acids. We reviewed the primary literature, mapped the metabolic transformations of acyl-CoAs to acylcarnitines, and created a freely available WikiPathway WP5423 to help researchers navigate the acylcarnitine field. The WikiPathway was curated, metabolites and metabolic reactions were annotated, and references were included. We also provide a table for conversion between common names and abbreviations and systematic abbreviations linked to the LIPID MAPS or Human Metabolome Database.

中文翻译：

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酰基肉碱合成的代谢途径

酰基肉碱是许多疾病代谢研究中的重要标志物，包括代谢、心血管和神经系统疾病。我们回顾了分析酰基肉碱的分析方法，包括现有的结构信息、旧方法的技术局限性以及基于质谱的新技术提供代谢物结构新信息的潜力。我们根据历史通用名称和常见缩写总结了酰基肉碱的命名法，并建议使用源自脂质结构简写符号的系统缩写。向系统命名法的转变将促进代谢组学中酰基肉碱的注释、报告和标准化。我们回顾了酰基肉碱的代谢起源，这对于人类代谢组谱的生物学解释很重要。我们鉴定了被忽视的酰基肉碱异构体，并总结了酰基肉碱合成和降解所涉及的代谢途径，包括支链脂质和氨基酸。我们回顾了主要文献，绘制了酰基辅酶A到酰基肉碱的代谢转化，并创建了免费的 WikiPathway WP5423 来帮助研究人员探索酰基肉碱领域。WikiPathway 进行了策划，对代谢物和代谢反应进行了注释，并包含了参考文献。我们还提供了通用名称和缩写以及链接到 LIPID MAPS 或人类代谢组数据库的系统缩写之间的转换表。