Application of Circular Dichroism Spectropolarimetry for Discrimination between Type 2 Diabetic Patients and the Control Group

It is well known that many biomolecules are chiral and their structure can be monitored by chiroptical spectroscopy. Nevertheless, their analysis in the natural environment of biofluids remains challenging. Recently, little efforts have been made to study biofluids by chiroptical techniques and find a specific signature for healthy/diseased conditions. Blood plasma can be a great subject for this line of examinations. In this study real clinical human blood plasma samples from 46 subjects were analyzed using CD spectropolarimetry to discriminate between type 2 diabetic patients and the control group. For more a challenging condition, patients were selected with type 2 diabetic and ulcer. The results showed a significant decrease in the total α-helical conformation of plasmatic proteins obtained from patients. Also total plasmatic protein content varied with disease condition. As a result, circular dichroism was useful to discriminate between the diabetic patients and the control group, and even between the diabetic patients with or without ulcer. Results of this study encourage possibility of using this technique as a useful supportive tool to conventional diagnostic methods.