Diabetes after a corona infection – German researchers report on such a case in the journal “Nature Metabolism”. “A 19-year-old patient came to the clinic with newly developed severe diabetes with insulin deficiency. It turned out that he had apparently gone through an infection with Sars-CoV-2 a few weeks before,” explained Matthias Laudes from Christian-Albrechts -University of Kiel (CAU).
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The proven type 1 diabetes is usually triggered by an autoimmune reaction in which the immune system mistakenly considers the beta cells in the pancreas to be foreign and attacks them. “But this patient did not have this autoimmune reaction,” said Laudes. “We assume that the Sars-CoV-2 virus itself attacked the beta cells here.” The then disturbed insulin production then led to diabetes.
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The authors emphasize, however, that their observations are not reliable evidence that the infection was the trigger for diabetes in the 19-year-old. It is also conceivable that the young man already had undetected diabetes before he became infected with Sars-CoV-2. But he had no symptoms. Further analyzes of the possible connection between Covid-19 and the onset of diabetes are necessary for clarification.
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Researchers from Munich and Dresden were also involved in the work.
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