Raman spectroscopy analysis of plasma of diabetes patients with and without retinopathy, nephropathy, and neuropathy

[Display omitted] •Early detection or diagnosis can aid in developing strategies to reduce the risk factors and management costs of diabetic complications such as Retinopathy, Nephropathy, and Neuropathy.•Raman Spectroscopy (RS) was employed to analyse the plasma samples of diabetes patients without and with diabetic microvascular complications (DMCs) along with the plasma samples of control subjects.•75% of control spectra show correct classification when compared with diabetes and DMC groups.•70% of the Diabetes subjects without complications can be correctly identified from diabetes with complications.•Raman spectral findings revealed decrease in protein content in diabetes group and further subsequent decrease in proteins in DMC groups when compared with control group. Diabetes is now one of the major public health challenges, globally. Prolonged diabetes leads to various diabetic microvascular complications (DMCs) like retinopathy, nephropathy, and neuropathy. Multiple factors are likely to be involved in predisposing diabetic individuals to complications. Early detection or diagnosis is essential in developing strategies to reduce the risk factors and management costs of these diabetic complications. In this study, we employed Raman Spectroscopy (RS) to analyse the plasma samples of diabetes patients without and with DMCs along with the plasma samples of healthy subjects. Spectral comparisons revealed decrease in protein content in Diabetes group and further subsequent decrease in proteins in DMC groups when compared with control group, which corroborates with the fact that there exists increased secretion of proteins in urine and corresponding decreased protein content in their blood in case of diabetic individuals. Among all study groups, it was noted that 75% of control spectra show correct classification, while spectral misclassification is high amongst the subjects with Diabetes and DMCs. Interestingly, very few Diabetes and DMC plasma spectra are misclassified as control spectra. Findings demonstrate that 70% of the Diabetes subjects without complications can be correctly identified from diabetes with complications. Further, investigations could also attempt to explore the use of serum instead of plasma to reduce the spectral misclassifications as one of the abundant constituents namely clotting factors could be avoided. The outcome of RS study may be imminent for the early detection or diagnosis of DMCs.