New findings on easy methods to avert extreme weight reduction from COVID-19

Dropping an excessive amount of weight when contaminated with COVID-19 has been linked to worse outcomes. Now, researchers at Karolinska Institutet in Sweden have found that SARS-CoV-2 an infection fuels blood vessel formation in fats tissues, thus revving up the physique’s thermogenic metabolism. Blocking this course of by utilizing an present drug curbed weight reduction in mice and hamsters that have been contaminated with the virus, in accordance with the examine revealed within the journal Nature Metabolism.

“Our examine proposes a very new idea for treating COVID-19 related weight reduction by focusing on the blood vessels within the fats tissues,” says Yihai Cao, professor on the Division of Microbiology, Tumor and Cell Biology, Karolinska Institutet, and the examine’s corresponding creator.

The researchers examined how various kinds of fats, together with brown fats and visceral and subcutaneous white fats, reacted when uncovered to SARS-CoV-2 and the way it impacted weight in mice and hamsters.

They discovered that the animals misplaced important quantities of weight in 4 days and that this weight reduction was preceded by the activation of brown fats and the browning of each kinds of white fats. These fats tissues additionally contained extra microvessels and excessive ranges of a signaling protein referred to as vascular endothelial progress issue (VEGF), which promotes the expansion of recent blood vessels.

The researchers noticed the identical mechanisms in human tissue samples from 4 sufferers who died of COVID-19, suggesting the findings may very well be clinically related for people.

When the researchers handled the animals with a substance that inhibits the formation of recent blood vessels, a so-called antiangiogenic drug, the animals recovered most of their misplaced weight and their fats tissues exhibited fewer microvessels.

“Antiangiogenic medication are at the moment used within the clinic to deal with numerous kinds of cancers,” Yihai Cao says. “It is potential these medication is also useful in treating COVID-19-related issues akin to extreme weight reduction and metabolic modifications, thus bettering the standard of life and survival for these sufferers. In fact, we are going to want extra analysis to validate if our preclinical findings additionally maintain up in human trials.”