Determine the Impact of SARS-CoV-2 infection on Human Pancreatic Endocrine Cells

What area of diabetes research does your project cover? What role will this particular project play in preventing, treating and/or curing diabetes? In the Diabetes Program of Surgery at Weill Cornell Medicine, we focuses on studying the impact of genetic factors and environmental factors on pancreatic β cell generation, function, and proliferation in type 1 and 2 diabetes. Recent clinical studies show a strong association with COVID-19 and diabetes. However, it is not clear what types of diabetes associated cells are infected and how the cells response to SARS-CoV-2 infection. There is an urgent need for physiological models to study SARS-CoV-2 infection using diabetes-relevant human cells. We have created a platform comprised of human pluripotent stem cells hPSC-derived endocrine cells. We found that human pancreatic alpha and beta cells are highly permissive to SARS-CoV-2 infection, further validated using adult primary human islets. SARS-CoV-2 infection caused striking expression of chemokines, similar to primary human COVID-19 pulmonary autopsies. Here, we propose to validate the SARS-CoV-2 infection using autopsy pancreatic samples from COVID-19 patients and systematically evaluate the impact of SARS-CoV-2 infection on human endocrine cells. If a person with diabetes were to ask you how your project will help them in the future, how would you respond? We will understand how SARS-CoV-2 infection causes diabetes. Why is it important for you, personally, to become involved in diabetes research? What role will this award play in your research efforts? In the Diabetes Program of Surgery at Weill Cornell Medicine, we study how genetic and environmental factors contribute to diabetes progression. A number of studies support the hypothesis that viral infections play a causative role in Type 1 diabetes. Recent clinical studies suggest that diabetes is not only a risk factor for severe COVID-19 disease, but also that SARS-CoV-2 infection can induce new onset diabetes. This grant will give us the opportunity to explore the impact of SARS-CoV-2 infection on human endocrine cells. In what direction do you see the future of diabetes research going? Diabetes is a complicated polygenic disease. Our research goal is to facilitate the development of personalized therapy.