A comprehensive look into the association of diabetes with COVID- 19

Abstract

This review aims to analyze the impact of diabetes on COVID-19 infection. Studies have shown a reciprocal relationship between diabetes and COVID-19. On one side, diabetes is associated with an increased risk of severe COVID-19 infection. On the flip side, patients with COVID-19 infection have been diagnosed with new-onset diabetes, serious metabolic complications of pre-existing diabetes where an exceptionally high dose of insulin was required. Diabetes is a disease that suppresses the immune system's functions. Diabetic patients' down-regulated immune responses have a major contribution to worsening aggravation and increasing mortality rate of COVID-19 infected patients. SARS-COV-2 causes pleiotropic alterations in glucose metabolism which in turn complicates the pathophysiology of preexisting diabetes or direct to new mechanisms of diabetes. Due to the impaired immune response of diabetic patients’ higher number of COVID-19 viruses enters the cell and facilitate severe infection. Hence, this group of patients requires careful clinical management.