IIT Bombay researchers study hidden blood markers; here's why

Researchers at the Indian Institute of Technology IIT Bombay have studied hidden blood markers to find diabetes risk paving the way for early detection and more personalised treatmentsIndia is often called the diabetes capital of the world with an estimated 101 million adults currently living with the condition and another 136 million at risk with prediabetesCurrent tests like fasting blood glucose HbA1c capture only a fraction of the complex biochemical disruptions underlying the disease and cannot always predict who faces the greatest riskThe team from IIT Bombay used metabolomics the study of small molecules in the blood to find biochemical patterns that could help identify patients at risk of diabetesMetabolites are tiny molecules present in the body that reflect the ongoing activity in cells By analysing them hidden shifts in body chemistry that precede clinical symptoms can be detectedldquoType 2 diabetes is not just about high blood sugar It disrupts amino acids fats and other pathways in the body Standard tests often miss this hidden activity which may often begin years before the onset of clinical symptomsrdquo said Sneha Rana doctoral scholar from IIT BFor the study published in the Journal of Proteome Research the team collected whole blood samples from 52 volunteers at Osmania General Hospital in Hyderabad between June 2021 and July 2022The participants included 15 healthy controls 23 patients with type 2 diabetes and 14 patients with diabetic kidney disease DKD Using two complementary techniques liquid chromatographymass spectrometry LCMS and gas chromatographymass spectrometry GCMS the team scanned for nearly 300 metabolitesThey found 26 metabolites that differed between diabetic patients and healthy controlsSome were expected such as glucose cholesterol and 15anhydroglucitol a shortterm marker of blood sugar But others like valerobetaine ribothymidine and fructosylpyroglutamate had not been linked to diabetes beforeldquoThis suggests that diabetes is a much broader metabolic disorder beyond just glucose dysregulationrdquo said Prof Pramod Wangikar from the varsityThe team found that biochemical patterns could also help identify diabetic patients at risk of kidney complicationsWhen comparing patients with kidney disease to the other groups the team identified seven metabolites that steadily increased from healthy to diabetic kidney disease patientsThese included sugar alcohols like arabitol and myoinositol as well as ribothymidine and a toxinlike compound called 2PY which accumulates when the kidneys are damagedThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever