CHARACTERIZATION OF PATHOGEN-ASSOCIATED ANTIBODY PROFILES IN DIABETES MELLITUS-TYPE 2 PATIENTS USING IMMUNOPROTEOMICS APPROACH

Abstract

Type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) is a common health concern globally. 80% of diabetic patients are T2DM patients. T2DM can result in many serious complications. For instance, cardiovascular diseases, renal diseases, eye problems, neuropathy, peripheral vascular diseases, and weak immune system. Weak immunity that T2DM patients encounter frequently, can lead to different types of infections. Studies have shown that T2DM patients have a higher risk of having infections by 47% than normal individuals. Also, due to weak immunity, any infection can result in a serious health problem like sepsis. To avoid serious problems resulting from infections, it is worthy to follow up on T2DM patients and invest more efforts in different aspects to protect them against different life-threatening infections. In this study, we aim to investigate the IgG antibody profile of 50 T2DM patients against 20 different pathogens by comparing them to 50 healthy individuals using their plasma samples, to know exactly what the defects in immune reactions for these patients are. The main objectives in this study can be summarized as, determination of the specific antibodies associated with pathogens in Diabetes Mellitus Type 2 (T2DM) patients using the FLEXMAP 3D immunoproteomics technology, quantification of the levels of identified pathogen-associated antibodies in plasma samples of T2DM by comparing them to healthy individuals, and investigation of the variations in pathogen-associated antibody profiles among different gender and age groups within the analyzed cohort. Results showed significant differences (adj. p-value<0.05) in antibody response against different bacterial/fungal supernatant when comparing T2DM patients to healthy individuals. Also, by looking at antibody response among different genders and age groups, significant variations have been encountered, especially among T2DM patients. This study can be beneficial for T2DM patients, by extending the knowledge about their immune system problem, stratify the patients according to their past infections and help in developing certain vaccines or antibodies that can be given to T2DM patients to boost their immunity against some common and serious infections.