Type 1 and 2 diabetes

Subject: Science and tech

Context:

Diabetes remained one of the risk factors for developing severe COVID-19 and chances of COVID deaths are elevated in people with diabetes. But now there is growing evidence that novel coronavirus might actually be triggering diabetes in some people who have so far remained free of it.

Concept:

• These patients typically develop type-1 diabetes.
• However, more evidence is needed to conclusively prove that COVID-19 indeed causes type-1 diabetes.
• It is also not clear if the acute-onset diabetes in COVID-19 patients will be permanent or transient.
• Diabetes mellitus is a metabolic disease of high blood sugar (glucose) levels that result from problems with insulin secretion, its action, or both. Normally, blood glucose levels are tightly controlled by a hormone produced by the pancreas known as insulin. When blood glucose levels rise (for example, after eating food), insulin is released from the pancreas to normalize the glucose level.

Type 1 diabetes:

• An absolute lack of insulin, usually due to destruction of the insulin-producing beta cells of the pancreas, is the main problem in type 1 diabetes.
• It is to be due to an autoimmune process, in which the body’s immune system mistakenly targets its own tissues (islet cells in the pancreas. This tendency for the immune system to destroy the beta cells of the pancreas is likely to be, at least in part, genetically inherited, although the exact reasons that this process happens are not fully understood.

Type 2 diabetes:

• People who have type 2 diabetes can still produce insulin, but do so relatively inadequately for their body’s needs. 
• Genetics plays a role in the development of type 2 diabetes, and having a family history and close relatives with the condition increases your risk; however, there are other risk factors, with obesity being the most significant.