Tear Protein Markers for Diabetic Retinopathy and Diabetic Macular Edema – Towards an Early Diagnosis and Better Prognosis

ABSTRACT

Background

Diabetic eye disease is a highly prevalent and sight-threatening disorder. It is a disease of neuro-vascular unit of the retina, if left untreated can cause blindness. Therapeutic approaches followed for its treatment can only restrict the progression of the disease with highly variable results. There is no known biomarker for an early diagonsis of this disease, therefore by the time it is detected it goes beyond repair. This creates a massive demand for development of such biomarkers that help detect disease in its earlier stages.

Methods

PUBMED (https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/) was searched for articles relevant to the topic published till November 2023. The search was made using keywords such as Diabetic Retinopathy, inflammation, tear, biomarker, proteomics etc. The studies providing relevant information to prove the importance of biomarker discovery were chosen. After compiling the data, the manuscript writing was planned under relevant headings and sub-headings.

Results

The review provides a comprehensive overview of all the tear protein biomarker studies in the field of DR and DME. Briefly, their potential in other diseases is also elucidated. While there are many studies pertaining to DR biomarkers, the identified markers lack validations which has restricted their usage in clinics. In case of DME, there was no such study towards biomarker discovery for its diagnosis and prognosis.

Conclusions

The review highlights major studies and their lacunae in the field of biomarkers discovery for DR and DME.

KEYWORDS:

• Biomarker
• diabetic macular edema
• diabetic retinopathy
• tear proteomics

Acknowledgements

We thank Hyderabad Eye Research Foundation (HERF) for their infrastructural support.

DISCLOSURE STATEMENT

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

AUTHOR CONTRIBUTIONS

IK, PRK and BT inculcated the idea of writing this manuscript. SS wrote the first draft of manuscript. AB, BT, RN, VR, PRK, MT, RN, IK provided valuable feedback and suggestions for shaping the manuscript. AB, BT, RN, VR, PRK, MT and RN have also contributed towards writing certain sections of the manuscript. SS and IK finalised the manuscript.

Additional information

Funding

This work was partly supported by a COE grant (BT/PR32404/MED/30/2136/2019) from the Department of Biotechnology and Hyderabad Eye Research Foundation (LEC -BHR-P-10-21-768). SS is supported through a junior research fellowship from the Department of Health Research, Indian Council of Medical Research, Govt. of India grant (R.11013/03/2023-GIA/HR).