Simple analysis for complex diseases
Approximately two-thirds of the 424 million diabetic patients worldwide die from vascular complications. Early detection of these complications will help to start timely treatment and avoid the development of serious illness or death.
Researchers from Northwestern University, the University of Chicago in the USA and Wuhan University in China have adapted a new blood test technology to detect such serious complications of diabetes mellitus as atherosclerosis, kidney and heart failure. This technology has recently been tested to detect liver cancer in patients, and is currently being tested for other common forms of cancer.
Modern methods of diagnosing vascular complications in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus – monitoring the patient's body mass index (BMI), the duration of the disease or a blood test showing the level of excess sugar breakdown products are prone to errors and do not detect complications early enough to start treatment on time. The non-invasive and easy-to-use test allows you to analyze a patient's DNA using highly sensitive blood biomarkers. 3-5 milliliters of blood is enough for this.
With the development of a macro- or microvascular complication of diabetes mellitus, damaged blood vessels release DNA into the bloodstream. Selective determination of one of the methylated nucleotides (5-hydroxymethylcytosine) in circulating extracellular DNA is the essence of the new test and signals doctors about the problem.
The study involved 62 volunteers with diabetes mellitus: 12 patients without vascular complications, 34 patients with one vascular complication and 16 with multiple vascular complications. A new highly sensitive blood test made it possible to determine whether the patient had vascular complications, much more accurately than modern diagnostic methods. In addition, he distinguished blood samples of patients with a single vascular complication from multiple ones.
A clinically convenient, new non-invasive approach for monitoring the development of vascular complications of diabetes mellitus will improve the overall quality of life of patients and help reduce the burden on the healthcare system through timely preventive measures.
Article Y.Yang et al. 5-Hydroxymethylcytosines in Circulating Cell-Free DNA Reveal Vascular Complications of Type 2 Diabetes published in the journal Clinical Chemistry.
Aminat Adzhieva, portal "Eternal Youth" http://vechnayamolodost.ru based on the materials of Northwestern: Revolutionary simple blood tests for diabetic complications, cancer.