IIT Bombay-Osmania Hospital Research Finds Biomarkers To Spot Early Signs Of Diabetic Kidney Disease
Researchers said that the discovery could help doctors identify kidney problems in diabetics much before symptoms appear.
Published : November 5, 2025 at 4:00 PM IST
Mumbai: In a major medical breakthrough, researchers from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Bombay, in collaboration with doctors from the Osmania General Hospital in Hyderabad, have found that the risk of kidney disease in diabetic patients can be detected early through specific biomarkers in their blood.
In the new study, researchers led by Professor Pramod Wangikar from IIT Bombay and Dr Rakesh Kumar Sahay and Dr Manisha Sahay from Osmania Medical College, along with researchers from Clarity Bio Systems India, Pune, used metabolomics, the study of small molecules in the blood, to find biochemical patterns that could help identify patients at risk of kidney complications.
The research team collected blood samples from 52 volunteers between June 2021 and July 2022. The volunteers included 15 healthy controls, 23 patients with Type 2 diabetes, and 14 patients with diabetic kidney disease (DKD).
Using two complementary techniques, liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (LC-MS) and gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS), the researchers scanned nearly 300 metabolites.
By analysing their blood samples, researchers found 26 metabolic products (metabolites) that differed between diabetic patients and healthy controls.
"Type 2 diabetes is not just about high blood sugar. It disrupts amino acids, fats, and other pathways in the body. Standard tests often miss this hidden activity, which may often begin years before the onset of clinical symptoms," said Sneha Rana, a PhD scholar in Professor Wangikar's lab.
According to the researchers, these biomarkers could serve as early indicators of kidney complications in diabetic patients, which allow doctors to recommend preventive measures and timely treatment. Using advanced techniques, researchers analysed that seven of these metabolites gradually increase in diabetic patients, which suggests a progressive risk of kidney damage.
Dr Rakesh Kumar Sahay of the Osmania Medical College said, “Just as cholesterol tests help assess the risk of heart disease, these biomarkers could, in the future, be used to predict kidney disease in diabetics.”
“Early identification of such biomarkers can significantly improve disease management and reduce the burden of kidney disease in India," Sahay added.
India, often called the diabetes capital of the world, has around 101 million adults currently living with the condition and another 136 million at risk with prediabetes, making Type 2 diabetes a public health concern in the country.
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