ATR-FTIR and Genetic Polymorphism Analysis: Potential Tools in the Diagnosis and Identification of Predisposition to DM2

Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus (DM2) is a multifactorial disorder characterized by insulin resistance or reduced hormonal production, commonly diagnosed in adults. The pre-diabetes stage, reversible if treated, can progress to DM2, leading to serious complications such as vision loss and cardiovascular disease. Currently, conventional diagnostic methods, such as glucose measurement and glycated hemoglobin analysis, require fasting which can be uncomfortable for patients; thus, infrared spectroscopy analysis demonstrates great potential as a tool to facilitate disease diagnosis. Genetic polymorphism analysis, although expensive and time-consuming, offers early insights into predisposition to DM2, becoming an important technique for predicting susceptibility to disease development. Studies on the SNP -866G/A of the UCP2 gene, associated with DM2, indicate the polymorphism as one of the factors that may facilitate disease development. This study evaluates the feasibility of FTIR spectroscopy as an alternative method for DM2 and pre-diabetes diagnosis by analyzing serum collected from 17 patients (9 with elevated glucose and HbA1c levels and 8 controls). The presence of the -866G/A polymorphism in the UCP2 gene was evaluated using the PCR-RFLP technique for group stratification. The ATR-FTIR technique proved effective in separating patients with glucose alterations from those with normal glycemic patterns; however, further studies are needed to correlate the -866G/A polymorphism with DM2 predisposition.