The clinical course of type 2 diabetes is highly heterogeneous. Even among individuals who begin treatment at the stage of newly diagnosed diabetes, the trajectory over the following years can vary significantly. Although conventional risk factors such as younger age at diagnosis and marked hyperglycemia have been proposed as predictors for early insulin initiation, these parameters alone are insufficient to accurately forecast disease progression. Proteomic data, which capture systemic biological responses through circulating protein expression patterns, may serve as surrogate markers for predicting diabetes progression.
In this study, we aim to investigate whether the proteomic profile at the time of new-onset type 2 diabetes is associated with: (1) subsequent deterioration in glycemic control, (2) early initiation of insulin therapy, and (3) the development of diabetes-related complications.