Potential Biomarkers in Diabetic Retinopathy.

BACKGROUND Diabetic retinopathy is one of the important complication of diabetes. In major cases diabetic retinopathy is unnoticed until the irreversible damage to eye occurs and leads to blurred vision and eventually blindness. OBJECTIVE The pathogenesis and diagnosis of diabetic retinopathy is very complex and not fully understood. Currently, well-established laser techniques and medications are available but these treatment options have their own shortcomings on biological systems. Biomarkers can help to overcome this problem due to easy, fast and economic option for diagnosis of diabetic retinopathy. METHOD Literature was explored using search terms like "Diabetic retinopathy", "Biomarkers in diabetic retinopathy", "Novel biomarkers in diabetic retinopathy" and "Potential biomarkers of diabetic retinopathy" by using different scientific resources and database like EBSCO, ProQuest, PubMed and Scopus. Eligibility criteria included biomarkers involved in diabetic retinopathy in detectable range. Exclusion criteria included the repetition and duplication of biomarker in diabetic retinopathy. RESULTS Current review and literature study revealed that biomarkers of diabetic retinopathy can be categorized as inflammatory: tumor necrosis factor-α, monocyte chemoattractant protein-1, transforming growth factor- β; antioxidant: nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide phosphate oxidase; nucleic acid: poly ADP ribose polymerase- α, Apelin, Oncofetal; enzyme: ceruloplasmin, protein kinase C; and miscellaneous: erythropoietin. These biomarkers has a great potential in progression of diabetic retinopathy hence can be used in the diagnosis and management of this debilitating disease. CONCLUSION Above mentioned biomarkers play a key role in the pathogenesis of diabetic retinopathy hence they can also be considered as potential targets for new drug development.