Why COVID-19 is More Deadly in Obese People and Men?

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Highlights:

• COVID-19 symptoms may be mild or make some people need a machine to breathe
• The risk of developing dangerous symptoms may be increased in male and obese people
• Therefore, body mass index and gender should be used as an indicator for vaccine effectiveness

Individuals with obesity may have a particularly difficult time fending off SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19. Specifically, female obese mice experienced worse disease symptoms, showing the importance of both obesity and biological sex in COVID-19 outcomes. These findings appear in iScience.

Obesity dramatically increases someone's risk of being hospitalized, placed on a ventilator or dying due to COVID-19. Considering that about two out of every five Americans are obese, that risk is far from negligible.

What Makes Obese People so Vulnerable to COVID-19?

There are always going to be little differences in the way our body's function and those changes can ultimately affect the ways we respond to everything. So, incorporating those differences such as metabolic diseases and pre-existing conditions can tell about how vaccines and therapeutics might be more or less effective in these people.

‘Obesity and biological sex dramatically increases someone�s risk of being hospitalized, placed on a ventilator or dying due to COVID-19.’

In the study, researchers exposed two groups of mice to SARS-CoV-2. One group ate a diet designed to induce obesity; the other stuck to a normal diet and maintained a healthy weight. On average, the mice that developed obesity experienced more severe disease than their counterparts did. They also showed symptoms sooner.

But these disparities were more pronounced in the female mice than in the males. In addition, female mice in the obesity group experienced high viral burdens and the most inflammation in their lungs.

Who Is at More Risk of Severe COVID-19 Infection?

Clinically, a lot of data shows that men are more predisposed to severe COVID-19 than women. While they can't translate our findings from female mice directly to female humans, they do indicate an area for future study. They're also relevant to the development of new vaccines and treatments for COVID-19, as well as other respiratory diseases.

These mice are a new preclinical model we developed to be used as another tool to measure the protection of vaccines and other therapeutics the Vaccine Development Center has in development.

What we see with SARS-CoV-2 in a host with metabolic disease here is potentially relevant to respiratory pathogens and diseases. Pre-existing conditions and comorbidities are going to be really important to consider moving forward.

References:

1. Individuals with obesity and COVID-19: A global perspective on the epidemiology and biological relationships - (https:onlinelibrary.wiley.com/action/showCitFormats?doi=10.1111%2Fobr.13128)
2. Obesity and COVID-19: what makes obese host so vulnerable? - (https:immunityageing.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12979-020-00212-x)

Source: Medindia

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