Why do people with diabetes develop severe COVID-19? (Helpful: Interferon beta and possibly methyl donors with lysine)

Medical XPress / University of Michigan ^ | Sept. 8, 2021 | Kelly Malcom / W. James Melvin, M.D., Katherine Gallagher, M.D., et al

[ConservativeMind]

Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, clinicians have noted that certain patients are at especially high risk of developing severe illness or dying from coronavirus infection. Type 2 diabetes—a condition affecting more than 10 percent of the U.S. population— is one of the main risk factors for severe COVID-19 illness. New research from U-M uncovers why this might be and offers hope for a potential therapy.

The culprit appears to be an enzyme called SETDB2. This same enzyme has been implicated in the non-healing, inflammatory wounds found in people with diabetes….

"We think we have a reason for why these patients are developing a cytokine storm," said Melvin.

In the mouse and human models, noted Melvin and Gallagher, as SETDB2 went down, inflammation went up. In addition, they revealed that a pathway known as JAK1/STAT3 regulates SETDB2 in macrophages during coronavirus infection.

Taken together, the results point to a potential therapeutic pathway. Previous findings from the lab demonstrated that interferon, a cytokine important for viral immunity, increased SETDB2 in response to wound healing. In their new study, they found blood serum from patients in the ICU with diabetes and severe COVID-19 had reduced levels of interferon-beta compared to patients without diabetes.

To test this, the study team administered interferon beta to coronavirus-infected diabetic mice and saw that they were able to increase SETDB2 and decrease inflammatory cytokines.

"We're trying to home in on what controls SETDB2, which is sort of the master regulator of a lot of these inflammatory cytokines that you hear about as being increased in COVID-19, such as IL-1B, TNFalpha, and IL-6," explained Gallagher.

"Looking upstream at what's controlling SETDB2, interferon is at the top end, with JaK1 and STAT3 in the middle. Interferon increases both, which increases SETDB2 in a sort of cascade."

[shotgun]

My 70 year old FIL has type 1 diabetes. He got Covid about 3 months ago. It hit him like a hard flu for about 18 days but he didn’t even go see a doctor. He lost 31 pounds during that time. He also beat bladder cancer 2 years ago, so he has what has been claimed as comorbidities.

He’s a tough old bird.

[texas booster]

I have met several old codgers that are just tough as nails.

Getting certainly takes its toll on them but these guys just won’t quit.

I trust that as I age I will be that tough, but it isn’t near as much fun as the brochure states.

[Pelham]

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/labs/pmc/articles/PMC7785422/

“Patients with hypertension are commonly treated with the renin angiotensin system (RAS) antagonists, such as angiotensin converting enzyme inhibitors (ACE1s) or angiotensin receptor blockers (ARBs) in the control of blood pressure.

“However, these drugs have been reported to increase the expression of angiotensin converting enzyme 2 (ACE2), which is recognized as the receptor of SARS-CoV-2 in the cell surface, especially the lung epithelial cells.

“Thus, there has been a speculation that this class of antihypertension drugs might facilitate the infection and replication of the virus.

“On the other hand, some researchers believed that the expression may be a beneficial response in terms of limiting the lung injuries by the infection. Collectively, the exact impact of ACE1s and ARBs in the infection is still under debate. Here we present two lines of justifications supporting the hypothesis that those hypertension medicines may reduce the mortality in COVID-19 patients.”

[Gene Eric]

Thanks, Pelham.

[Qiviut]

From the beginning, I’ve always wondered how the virus manages to know if someone has high blood pressure

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Meds may be implicated, but metabolic syndrome is likely the culprit in most cases of COVID that are serious .... obesity is a major comorbidity, diabetes, high blood pressure .... all symptoms of metabolic syndrome. Also, though not mentioned below, those with metabolic syndrome have a lot of inflammation .... already ‘inflamed’ and then along comes the inflammation of the cytokine storm & you’re screwed.

https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/metabolic-syndrome/symptoms-causes/syc-20351916

From link:

Metabolic syndrome is a cluster of conditions that occur together, increasing your risk of heart disease, stroke and type 2 diabetes. These conditions include increased blood pressure, high blood sugar, excess body fat around the waist, and abnormal cholesterol or triglyceride levels.

Having just one of these conditions doesn’t mean you have metabolic syndrome. But it does mean you have a greater risk of serious disease. And if you develop more of these conditions, your risk of complications, such as type 2 diabetes and heart disease, rises even higher.

Metabolic syndrome is increasingly common, and up to one-third of U.S. adults have it. [My note: this is the root cause of the so-called ‘obesity’ epidemic]

[kelly4c]

Bkmk

[BobL]

Thanks, and I’m familiar with Metabolic Syndrome from my studies on the diabetes scam (meaning diabetes is real, what they tell you to do about it is a scam).

And while Metabolic Syndrome does result in chemical changes, plenty of people without Metabolic Syndrome do have high blood pressure, perhaps due to genetics. So maybe they’re lazy in also telling people that high blood pressure is a risk factor, when they meant Metabolic Syndrome...or perhaps it’s the drugs they take for it. The problem is that they’re clueless because they’re so busy ‘studying’ guns.

[BobL]

“Here we present two lines of justifications supporting the hypothesis that those hypertension medicines may reduce the mortality in COVID-19 patients.””

They’ll protect their drug pipeline at any cost. In this case, you’d think, if they were being honest, they would have told us that people with high blood pressure, who are on meds for it, are more PROTECTED against the virus, rather than telling us the opposite.

[Russ]

I’m a 76 year old diabetic who had the Covid last December. The symptoms were mild (I have had head colds that were more severe) and lasted three days. I also received the shots in February with no side effects. So far, so good...