Experiments in mice and analysis of blood samples of people with influenza showed, that elevated blood glucose triggers an uncontrolled immune response to influenza A virus.
When the flu virus enters the body, the immune system activates and sends units of its subordinate cells to fight the invaders. Communication – signaling – between cells is provided by small peptide molecules – cytokines.
In some cases, cytokines take on too much. Communication molecules begin to call too many immune cells “to fight”, which, in turn, activate their own cytokines. An avalanche-like process called a cytokine storm or cascade is launched.
The consequences of the storm are rather sad. Blinded by a thirst for “blood” cells of the immune system attack the “civilian population” – organs and tissues of the body. Autoimmune diseases develop. The body becomes defenseless against various infections, which we used to call complications after the flu. Among them is the friend of the coronavirus – Mrs. pneumonia.
Why are some people more likely to “get” into the cytokine storm, while others are struggling with flu viruses in normal mode? The medical community has no clear answer to this question yet. Scientists whose recent study published in the journal Science Advances, it is believed that a dangerous and sometimes fatal whistle of the immune system provokes an increase in blood glucose.
To test the hypothesis, laboratory mice were infected with influenza A. Half of the subjects were injected with glucosamine and waited. While the immune system of mice fought with the flu, scientists have updated relevant disease statistics in humans. The glucose level in 119 blood samples of patients infected with influenza was compared with the symptoms from their medical records. Severe complications of acute respiratory viral infections caused by cytokine bad weather in organisms were recorded in laboratory mice and in people with elevated blood glucose levels.
Researchers believe that serious symptoms of COVID-19 in diabetes patients are more likely to occur for the same reason as those infected with the common flu virus.
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