Researchers have discovered a new approach to tackling a persistent health challenge faced by people with long-term COVID: high blood sugar.

Their new study in Nature communication suggests that the COVID-19 vaccine could be used therapeutically to address metabolic complications that occur in people with long-term COVID, sometimes referred to as long-haulers, even if the vaccine is administered several days after infection.

“This research opens a new front in our fight against COVID-19.”

Many people who recover from COVID-19 continue to experience a variety of long-term health conditions, collectively known as long COVID.

One of the most concerning problems is persistent hyperglycemia, or high blood sugar, which can lead to serious health complications such as diabetes and heart disease. Understanding and addressing this problem has been a major challenge for researchers and health care providers.

To better understand and combat these long-term effects, the researchers used a non-human primate model of long-term COVID. They found that the model is also suitable for studying hyperglycemia and diabetes at the onset of COVID.

The researchers found that administering the COVID-19 mRNA vaccine four days after infection had a significant positive effect on blood sugar levels that lasted over time.

This finding suggests that the vaccine may have potential use not only for prevention, but also as a treatment to manage long-term metabolic complications of COVID-19.

The researchers also identified certain inflammatory molecules in the bloodstream that are linked to high blood sugar levels. The elevated blood sugar levels appear to be due to changes in the way the liver stores glucose, even though the virus was no longer present in the liver and pancreas. These findings suggest that diabetes may develop through novel mechanisms involving viral infection and inflammation.

“This research opens a new frontier in our fight against COVID-19,” said Clovis Palmer of Tulane University, one of the study’s lead authors. “By showing that the vaccine can have therapeutic benefits even after infection, we can explore new strategies to help people suffering from long-term COVID, particularly those with symptoms like chronic fatigue that may be related to metabolic dysfunction.”

“The discovery that COVID can cause diabetes in an animal model is an important advance in our understanding of the long-term effects of COVID,” said Jay Rappaport, co-corresponding author and director of the Tulane National Primate Research Center.

“The fact that a COVID vaccine administered after infection can have protective effects underscores the importance of innovative research in addressing the ongoing challenges of a pandemic.”

Support for this research came from the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), and funds from the Tulane National Primate Research Center core grant from the National Institutes of Health.

Source: Tulane University