HDL miRNA as predictive biomarkers for diabetic vascular complications in Indigenous populations

The project is looking into Type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) as a significant chronic disease in Indigenous Peoples. T2DM is a chronic disease characterised by hyperglycaemia due to a lack of response to insulin. It is a complicated disease with many environmental and hereditary risk factors. Diabetes increases vascular risk complications leading to morbidities such as peripheral artery disease and retinopathy.

T2DM and its associated complications are major burdens on Australia’s Indigenous population. Compared to non-Indigenous Australians, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders are three times more likely to have diabetes, have 5.6 times higher hospitalisation rates due to diabetic complications and are 38 times more likely to have lower limb amputation from diabetes (data from 2013).

This work is being done to further our understandings of the mechanism behind diabetes-impaired angiogenesis as a contributor to vascular complications, and will look into potential treatments and prognostic biomarkers of diabetic vascular complications in Indigenous Peoples.