Diabetes mellitus and COVID-19: current issues of pathogenesis, clinic and therapy. Literature review

Abstract

Currently, due to the rapid spread of COVID-19 with the manifestation of severe acute respiratory syndrome, extensive discussions are underway on a number of topical issues related to the best optimal ways to treat patients with diabetes mellitus (DM) during coronavirus pandemic, including problems of susceptibility to this new infection, presence of comorbid pathology, the disease severity and its course, the risks of complications and mortality, as well as the role of drugs used to control glycemia. The coronavirus pandemic is a severe acute respiratory syndrome SARS-CoV2 (COVID-19) dictates the need for immediate study and deep fundamental understanding of the general pathophysiology of the new disease, potentially determines the choice of therapeutic strategy in patients with DM, affected by coronavirus infection.Currently available epidemiological data on COVID-19 do not support the hypothesis that patients with diabetes are at increased risk of infection compared to the general population. To date, it has been established that decompensated DM is an independent factor that aggravates coronavirus infection and significantly increases the risk of fatal disease outcome. Thus, there are the scientific and clinical needs to obtain new data on the methods of treatment currently used in patients with DM infected with COVID-19 to determine their effectiveness and select the optimal treatment strategy, provide a less severe course and better prognosis of disease.Our knowledge of the new coronavirus infection is deepening day by day and the lessons dealing with this new pandemic around the world are extremely important and very valuable in determining the best approach to fighting against this disease. This review provides a brief summary of the general characteristics of COVID-19, and also based on the literature data provides an analytical characteristics of the relationship between this new infectious disease and DM in order to promote a better understanding of the pathogenetic and clinical aspects of this pathological combination, as well as the selection of the most effective therapeutic strategies for patients with COVID-19 and DM