Covid Can Infect Cells In Pancreas That Make Insulin, Studies: Why Some Get Diabetes Post-Covid?

- The Guardian, Sept. 29, 2021.

Covid-19 can infect insulin-producing cells in the pancreas and change their function, potentially explaining why some previously healthy people develop diabetes after catching the virus.

Doctors are increasingly concerned about the growing number of patients who have developed diabetes either while infected with coronavirus, or shortly after recovering from it.

Various theories have been put forward to explain this increase. One is that the virus infects pancreatic cells via the same ACE2 receptor found on the surface of lung cells, and interferes with their ability to produce insulin – a hormone that helps the body to regulate levels of glucose in the blood; alternatively, an over exuberant antibody response to the virus could accidentally damage pancreatic cells, or inflammation elsewhere in the body may be making tissues less responsive to insulin.

To investigate, Prof Shuibing Chen at Weill Cornell Medicine in New York screened various cells and organoids – lab-grown clusters of cells that mimic the function of organs – to identify which could be infected by Covid. The results suggested that lung, colon, heart, liver, and pancreatic organoids could all be infected, as could dopamine-producing brain cells.

Further experiments revealed that insulin-producing beta cells within the pancreas were also susceptible, and that once infected, these cells produced less insulin, as well as hormones usually manufactured by different pancreatic cells.

“We call it transdifferentiation,” said Chen, who presented the results at the annual meeting of the European Association for the Study of Diabetes on Wednesday. “They are basically changing their cellular fate, so instead of being hardcore beta cells which secrete a lot of insulin, they start to mix different hormones. It could provide further insight into the pathological mechanisms of Covid-19.”...

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https://www.theguardian.com/society/2021/sep/29/covid-can-infect-cells-in-pancreas-that-make-insulin-research-shows
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- Doctors suggest Covid-19 could cause diabetes. More than 350 clinicians report suspicions of Covid-induced diabetes, both type 1 and type 2, The Guardian, *March 19, 2021.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/mar/19/doctors-suggest-link-between-covid-19-and-diabetes