Xu J, Pan T, Qi X, et al. - Given a key role of certain metabolites in acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS), as well as their likely use as potential targets for developing therapies against ARDS, researchers used metabolomics and performed in vivo experiments in a mouse model, to investigate such “functional metabolites” in ARDS. This study involved 42 ARDS patients and 28 healthy controls. A significant difference was identified in the metabolomic profiles between patients with ARDS and healthy controls, disparity was also evident between metabolomic profiles of the non-survivors and the survivors in the ARDS patient pool. Overall, findings revealed a link between high levels of plasma Phenylalanine and increased mortality of acute respiratory distress syndrome.