Researchers from UVA Health have found a potential cure for severe COVID-19 in patients who are at high risk.
The latest study by Jie Sun, PhD, and colleagues at UVA offers a strategy for shielding patients with obesity or diabetes from COVID-19’s potentially dangerous blood sugar spikes and runaway inflammation. Due to the high risk of severe COVID-19 in these patients and the waning efficacy of currently available COVID treatments, new treatment options are urgently required.
Sun’s strategy targets the fuel transporter to mitochondria, the energy centers of our cells, in an effort to stop severe COVID-19. Reduced activity of this carrier, according to Sun and his team, protected obese lab mice from severe COVID-19 and influenza infection. The decrease in fuel supply simultaneously improved metabolic health and decreased harmful inflammation.
Additionally, it promoted lung recovery following pneumonia brought on by COVID-19 and influenza and helped prevent the harmful blood sugar spikes associated with COVID-19.
According to the researchers, their strategy “synergized” with Paxlovid’s nirmatrelvir antiviral component to “markedly” lower lab mouse mortality. This suggests that similar outcomes could be achieved in COVID-19-positive human patients by administering an insulin sensitizing medication.
As a UVA pulmonary and critical care physician-scientist with expertise in COVID-19 disease, Jeffrey Sturek, MD, PhD, co-authored the study. “We know that steroids are effective in severe COVID-19, but these drugs have side effects, like elevated blood glucose, that make their use more complicated in obese and diabetic patients,” he said. The ability of this pathway to treat both inflammation and abnormal glucose metabolism is what makes it so exciting.
