Researchers have found a brand new strategy to tackling a lingering well being problem confronted by some with long-term COVID: excessive blood sugar ranges.
Their new examine in Nature Communications means that the COVID-19 vaccine may very well be used therapeutically to handle metabolic problems skilled amongst these with long-term COVID, generally referred to as long-haulers, even when the vaccine is run a number of days after an infection.
“This analysis opens up a brand new frontier in our battle in opposition to COVID-19.”
Many individuals who recuperate from COVID-19 proceed to undergo from varied long-term health problems, collectively often known as lengthy COVID.
One of the crucial regarding points is persistent hyperglycemia, or high blood sugar, which might result in critical well being problems corresponding to diabetes and coronary heart illness. Understanding and addressing this downside has been a serious problem for researchers and well being care suppliers.
To higher perceive and fight these long-term results, the researchers turned to a nonhuman primate mannequin of lengthy COVID and decided that the mannequin can be applicable for finding out COVID-onset hyperglycemia and diabetes.
The researchers discovered that administering the COVID-19 mRNA vaccine 4 days after an infection confirmed a major constructive impact on blood sugar ranges that was sustained over time.
This discovering means that the vaccine may probably be used not only for prevention but in addition as a remedy for managing long-term metabolic problems of COVID-19.
The researchers additionally recognized sure inflammatory molecules within the bloodstream linked to excessive blood sugar ranges. The elevated blood sugar appears to end result from adjustments in how the liver shops glucose, though the virus was not current within the liver and pancreas. These findings counsel that diabetes could develop via new mechanisms involving viral infections and irritation.
“This analysis opens up a brand new frontier in our battle in opposition to COVID-19,” says Tulane College’s Clovis Palmer, one of many lead authors of the examine. “By displaying that the vaccine can have therapeutic advantages even after an infection, we are able to discover new methods to assist these affected by lengthy COVID, particularly these with symptoms like persistent fatigue which may be linked to metabolic dysfunction.”
“The invention that COVID can induce diabetes in an animal mannequin is a major development in our understanding of the long-term results of COVID,” says Jay Rappaport, co-corresponding creator and director of the Tulane Nationwide Primate Analysis Middle.
“The truth that a COVID vaccine given after an infection can have protecting results highlights the significance of revolutionary analysis in addressing the continuing challenges of a pandemic.”
Help for this analysis got here from the Nationwide Institutes of Well being (NIH), the Nationwide Institute of Allergy and Infectious Ailments (NIAID), and assets from the Tulane Nationwide Primate Analysis Middle base grant of the Nationwide Institutes of Well being.
Supply: Tulane University
