Diabetic retinopathy (DR) is one of the most serious microvascular complications of diabetes. Early diagnosis and treatment of diabetes is the key to prevent visual impairment in DR patients. This study aims to use a non-targeted metabolomics detection technique combined with ultra-high performance liquid chromatography time-of-flight mass spectrometry to analyze the metabolomics profile in aqueous humor sample of DR patents, and further explore the mechanism of the relationship between differential metabolites and their metabolic pathways with NLRP3 activation in DR inflammatory damage. DR patients with macular edema will receive anti-vascular endothelial growth factor (anti-VEGF) treatment; these patients will be divided into two groups: responders group and non-responders group.
Study Type
OBSERVATIONAL
Enrollment
240
Zhongshan Ophthalmic Center of Sun Yat-sen University
Guangzhou, Guangdong, China
Untargeted metabolomics for metabolic profile using UHPLC/MS
Aqueous humor samples in DR patients will be analysed to putatively identify metabolic profile by comparison with control samples using ultra-high performance liquid chromatography-high resolution mass spectrometer (UHPLC/MS). UHPLC/MS analysis allows the simultaneous high-resolution measurement of a broad range of metabolites, hence the untargeted nature of the analysis. For the UHPLC/MS results, perform normalization, standardization, and log transformation, then compare the metabolite differences between groups. Multivariate statistical analysis and Partial least squares discriminant analysis included in the mass spectrometry software will be used to analyse UHPLC/MS results to identify metabolites that best discriminate between DR and control conditions. The evaluation of significant metabolite results is based on: P-value and Fold change.
Time frame: 24 weeks
Best-corrected visual acuity
Best-corrected visual acuity at baseline and 24 weeks follow-up
Time frame: 24 weeks
Central subfield thickness
Central subfield thickness at baseline and 24 weeks follow-up
Time frame: 24 weeks
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