Mining of protein based biomarkers for type 2 diabetes mellitus

Diabetes mellitus in general and Type 2 Diabetes (T2D) in particular, are very complex diseases with heterogeneous etiology. T2D results from the impaired secretion or action of the insulin with a clinical phenotype of persistent hyperglycemia in the uncontrolled subjects. The disease clinical features appear after several years of latent preclinical asymptomatic conditions. Thus, when the disease is full blown, there are limited chances to reverse the disease phenotype; however, it can be managed by controlling diet, changing life style and using medicines. Understanding pathological mechanisms whereby genetic and/or environmental factors contribute to the development of diabetes is important for the prevention and treatment of the disease. In this regard, approaches such as genomics, transcriptomics, proteomics and metabolomics are being applied to identify more specific biomarkers for T2D for its early detection, management and devising new therapies. The emphasis of the present review is to provide updates on the applications of proteomics in addressing T2D with a focus on protein based biomarker discovery. Moreover, the idea of personalized medicine and intervention is also discussed for diabetes treatment in proteomics perspective.