Reckoning the Dearth of Bioinformatics in the Arena of Diabetic Nephropathy (DN)—Need to Improvise

Abstract

Diabetic nephropathy (DN) is a recent rising concern amongst diabetics and diabetologist. Characterized by abnormal renal function and ending in total loss of kidney function, this is becoming a lurking danger for the ever increasing population of diabetics. This review touches upon the intensity of this complication and briefly reviews the role of bioinformatics in the area of diabetes. The advances made in the area of DN using proteomic approaches are presented. Compared to the enumerable inputs observed through the use of bioinformatics resources in the area of proteomics and even diabetes, the existing scenario of skeletal application of bioinformatics advances to DN is highlighted and the reasons behind this discussed. As this review highlights, almost none of the well-established tools that have brought breakthroughs in proteomic research have been applied into DN. Laborious, voluminous, cost expensive and time-consuming methodologies and advances in diagnostics and biomarker discovery promised through beckoning bioinformatics mechanistic approaches to improvise DN research and achieve breakthroughs. This review is expected to sensitize the researchers to fill in this gap, exploiting the available inputs from bioinformatics resources.