Development of Diagnostic Biomarkers for Detecting Diabetic Retinopathy at Early Stages Using Quantitative Proteomics

Figure 1

The overall scheme for DR biomarker development. The first step to develop biomarkers is to identify candidates. To that end, we performed a comprehensive proteomics study of DR samples, which included 2 steps: (1) discovering and (2) validating biomarker candidates. In the discovery stage, 96 proteins were selected as DR-specific proteins in human vitreous. Using a MASCOT search, 39 proteins were confirmed in human plasma. In the verification stage, SQ-MRM and SID-MRM analyses were performed to verify the candidates. Finally, statistical analysis was performed on the 15 verified candidates.