Purpose
Glycated hemoglobin (HbA1c) is used clinically for diagnosis and therapeutic management of diabetes. However, HbA1c reflects average blood glucose level over a long period. The aim of this study is to look for short period, more sensitive protein markers that correlate better with glycemic level.
Experimental Design
The glycated proteome of human plasma from type 1 diabetic individuals with good and poor (n = 20 each) glycemic control are analyzed using an online two‐dimensional proteomics approach. Selected glycated peptides are further validated for their potential as candidate biomarkers using parallel reaction monitoring.
Results
305 glycated peptides are quantified and 290 are significantly increased in samples with poor glycemic control. 76 of the 88 selected glycated peptides have receiver operating characteristic area under curve (AUC) values greater than 0.8. Six validated glycated peptides with high AUC show high correlation with HbA1c and have higher fold changes between poor and good glycemic control than HbA1c. The parent proteins have half‐lives shorter than HbA1c.
Conclusions and Clinical Relevance
Using an advanced proteomics platform for protein glycation analysis, glycated peptides and proteins are identified that are promising as more sensitive, shorter term indicators of glycemic control in diabetic patients than the commonly used HbA1c.