Understanding immune and clinical causes of diabetes-related risk in COVID-19

What area of diabetes research does your project cover? What role will this particular project play in preventing, treating and/or curing diabetes? As widely reported people with type 2 diabetes appear to be particularly impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. People with type 2 diabetes who are infected with COVID-19 are more likely to do poorly. They are more likely to be hospitalized, be placed in Intensive Care Units (ICU), have to use a ventilator, and are less likely to survive their infection than those without type 2 diabetes. The aim of this project is to understand why this is the case. We will study how the immune system's response to infection differs among individuals infected with COVID-19 who do and do not have type 2 diabetes. We will also try to understand if these differences are part of the type 2 disease process itself. A further goal is to understand why some, but not all people with type 2 diabetes have a worse outcome than others. We hope that this understanding will help clinicians target specific risk factors for treatment or suggest the most effective therapies to combat the consequences of COVID-19 infection in people living with type 2 diabetes. If a person with diabetes were to ask you how your project will help them in the future, how would you respond? We hope to learn how to keep people with diabetes from experiencing bad consequences of being infected with COVID-19. In the future, this may also help people with diabetes who have other types of infections as well. Why is it important for you, personally, to become involved in diabetes research? What role will this award play in your research efforts? I have been involved in diabetes research for 30 years. I have been working to understand what causes type 1 diabetes and how we can stop it. I lead an international research group called Diabetes TrialNet, which tests relatives of people with type 1 diabetes to find people who are at risk of developing type 1 diabetes themselves. We recently showed that a therapy called teplizumab can delay people from getting type 1 diabetes for an average of 2 years! TrialNet is also testing other therapies to stop type 1 diabetes. Family members of people living with type 1 diabetes can learn more at TrialNet.org. Since type 1 diabetes is an autoimmune disease - that means that stopping type 1 diabetes involves understanding the immune system. We now want to apply our knowledge of the immune system to understand why people with type 2 diabetes often do poorly when infected with COVID-19. In what direction do you see the future of diabetes research going? It is so gratifying to see that decades of basic science research is translating to improved health for people living with type 1 diabetes. WIth the knowledge that we can delay the onset of type 1 diabetes, the myriad of new therapies for type 2 diabetes, and the increasing use of technologies - research already impacts people with diabetes. While significant scientific, psychological, and health care deliver issues remain to be wrestled with, the commitment of the ADA and researchers worldwide is to continue to move the needle towards a better life for those with diabetes and their family members. The future will be better due to research.