COVID-19 and thyroid disease: an infodemiological pilot study

Abstract

Introduction: Some studies have linked COVID-19 with thyroid disease. Google Trends (GT) searches may reflect disease epidemiology. Recently, GT searches for COVID-19-associated terms have been linked to the epidemiology of COVID-19. In this study we aimed to assess COVID-19 cases per se vs COVID-19-associated GT searches and thyroid-associated GT searches. Materials-Methods: We collected data on worldwide weekly GT searches regarding “COVID-19”, “SARS-COV-2”, “coronavirus”, “smell”, “taste”, “fatigue”, “cough”, “thyroid”, “thyroiditis” and “subacute thyroiditis” for 92 weeks and worldwide weekly COVID-19 cases' statistics in the same time period. The study period was split in half and in each time period we performed cross-correlation analysis and mediation analysis. Results Significant positive CCF values were noted in both time periods; while COVID-19 cases per se were associated with “thyroid” searches in both time periods, significant CCFs for “fatigue”, “COVID-19” and “SARS-COV-s” were mostly found in the second time period. In the latter period, the effect of “COVID-19” searches on “thyroid” searches was significantly mediated by COVID-19 cases (p=0.048). Discussion COVID-19 cases per se were found to be associated with no lag with GT searches for COVID-19 symptoms in the first time period and in the second time period to lead searches for symptoms, COVID-19 terms as well as thyroid terms. Searches for a non-specific symptom or COVID-19 search terms mostly lead GT “thyroid” searches, in the second time period. This time frame/sequence particularly in the second time period (noted by the preponderance of the SARS-COV-2 delta variant), lends some credence to associations of COVID-19 cases per se with (apparent) thyroid disease (via searches for them).

Pharmacological Evaluation of a Pegylated Urocortin-1 Peptide in Experimental Autoimmune Disease Models

“…Other observed adverse effects seen with the PEG-hUCN1 peptide or AAV8 UCN1, such as increases in fat mass, dyslipidemia, and blood glucose and decreases in muscle and adrenal gland mass have been previously attributed to elevated glucocorticoid activity (Wetzels et al, 1988;Berris et al, 2007;Prete and Bancos, 2021;Yasir et al, 2021). Glucocorticoid-induced osteoporosis in patients that receive synthetic glucocorticoids chronically show increased risk of fractures associated with poor quality of life (Ilias et al, 2022). Although corticosterone administration reduced midfemur BMD, we saw no such effect with AAV8 UCN1, and additionally we observed an increase in distal femur BMD.…”