Preliminary studies show a possible link between severe COVID-19 infections and new cases of diabetes in some patients.
Doctors have known for some time that there are more people with diabetes at risk of severe disease from coronavirus, but now scientists are working to determine if the virus can lead to some patients developing new cases of diabetes. Research in the medical journal Diabetes, Obesity and Metabolism and other studies raises concerns that the relationship may go in both directions.
“Researchers are working like crazy to see if COVID attacks insulin-producing beta cells in the pancreas,” said pediatrician Dr. Dyan Hes on Tuesday. “Some studies think so, but other studies have been repeated that it is not attracted to the beta cell. We still can’t figure out why.”
Almost a year after the pandemic, the effects “Long COVID” such as long-term respiratory complications and mild cognitive impairment have been documented in many patients, as have others. neurological symptoms, blood clots, hits, and lesions of the heart and kidneys. The analysis published in November 2020 found that out of 3700 patients hospitalized in eight studies, 14.4% were recently diagnosed with diabetes.
“As a pediatrician, I definitely looked at cases of children who had COVID or didn’t even know they had COVID, but had type 1 diabetes,” Hes said.
Type 1 diabetes, she explained, is an autoimmune disease “in which your body no longer produces insulin.” Type 2 is “when your body does not respond to the insulin you have.”
Doctors in Wuhan, China, reported a link between COVID-19 and elevated blood sugar levels in April 2020.
He mentioned that there could be a link with the treatments that some patients receive. “When you get hospital treatment for very sick patients, they get prednisone, which also raises blood sugar. So does that contribute?”
Italian scientists have also looked at whether these high blood sugar levels could lead to diabetes, recognizing a previously understood link between long-term viral infections and the disorder. The study, published in May, acknowledged that more research is needed before a conclusion can be reached.
Hes said it’s not “surprising” that a viral infection like COVID-19 could trigger type I diabetes, but the medical settings of these patients need to be studied. “Do we need to follow up on patients and see if they actually have a family history of autoimmune or type I diabetes or was it just COVID? Was that the only risk factor?”
Diabetes scientists in the UK and Australia are setting up a global registry of coronavirus-related diabetes. In an article published in the New England Journal of Medicine, the researchers said it was “plausible” that the effects of COVID-19 on the body’s ability to metabolize glucose could either complicate existing insulin levels or create new problems. leads to diabetes.
Francesco Rubino, a professor of diabetes surgery at King’s College London, told the Washington Post that the register already has more than 150 names and has received responses from more than 350 institutions around the world. Rubino and other researchers have suggested that the global study could “discover new mechanisms of disease.”
Dr Hes, who said the studies were preliminary, acknowledged the apparent link, but said more research was needed to understand it.
“It’s too early to tell,” she said. “We need huge numbers to predict this.”