Coronavirus may trigger new diabetes

There is emerging evidence suggesting that coronavirus may actually trigger the onset of diabetes in healthy people and also cause severe complications of pre-existing diabetes.

A letter published in the New England Journal of Medicine and signed by an international group of 17 leading diabetes experts involved in the CoviDiab project, a collaborative international research initiative, announces the establishment of a Global Registry of new cases of diabetes in patients with coronavirus.

Clinical observations so far show a bi-directional relationship between the virus and diabetes. On the one hand, diabetes is associated with increased risk of coronavirus severity and mortality. Between 20-30 per cent of patients who died with the virus have been reported to have diabetes. On the other hand, new-onset diabetes and atypical metabolic complications of pre-existing diabetes, including life-threatening ones, have been observed in people with coronavirus.

Francesco Rubino, co-lead investigator of the CoviDiab project, said: “Diabetes is one of the most prevalent chronic diseases and we are now realizing the consequences of the inevitable clash between two pandemics. Given the short period of human contact with this new coronavirus, the exact mechanism by which the virus influences glucose metabolism is still unclear and we don’t know whether the acute manifestation of diabetes in these patients represent classic type 1, type 2 or possibly a new form of diabetes.”

Stephanie Amiel, Professor of Diabetes Research at King’s College London said: “The registry focuses on routinely collected clinical data that will help us examine insulin secretory capacity, insulin resistance and autoimmune antibody status to understand how Covid-19 related diabetes develops, its natural history and best management. Studying Covid-19-related diabetes may uncover novel mechanisms of disease.”