Early Diagnosis of Diabetes through the Eye

Abstract

Diabetes mellitus is a metabolic disorder characterized by high blood sugar levels which give rise to complications in the eye, kidneys and the brain. Diabetes triggers the development of ocular diseases like diabetic retinopathy and cataracts which are the leading cause of blindness around the world. The most common method for the diagnosis of diabetes involves measuring the blood sugar levels in the body. One major disadvantage of this method is the fluctuating blood sugar levels which contribute to false negative results. This leads to delay in treatment, eventually causing permanent damage to the organs. Therefore, diagnosis of diabetes at an early stage is very crucial. One biomarker for diabetes related diseases is the formation of Advanced Glycation End-products (AGEs) that result from the Maillard reaction of proteins with glucose. α-crystallin in the ocular lens is a small heat shock protein with no protein turnover and hence acts as a record for post-translational modifications especially glycation which forms AGEs. We have used steady state and time resolved fluorescence measurements to study the spectroscopic changes in α-crystallin with increase in time of glycation and the intact lenses from diabetic and nondiabetic donors. Overall, this study was focused on developing a noninvasive diagnostic tool for early detection of diabetes mellitus.