SARS-CoV-2 infection impairs the insulin/IGF signaling pathway across multiple tissues, potentially explaining the metabolic abnormalities and increased severity seen in older, male, obese, or diabetic COVID-19 patients.
The present study provides the first scientific evidence that SARS-CoV-2 infection impairs the insulin/IGF signaling pathway in respiratory, metabolic, and endocrine cells and tissues. This feature likely contributes to COVID-19 severity with cell/tissue damage and metabolic abnormalities, which may be exacerbated in older, male, obese, or diabetic patients.
Shin et al. (Tue,) studied this question.