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Herbal-based therapeutics for diabetic patients with SARS-Cov-2 infection

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Abstract

Human SARS Coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) has infected more than 170 million people worldwide, being responsible for about 3.5 million deaths so far. Despite ongoing investigations, there is still more to understand the mechanism of COVID-19 infection completely. However, it has been evidenced that SARS-CoV-2 can cause Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) notably in diabetic people. Approximately 35% of the patients who died of this disease had diabetes. A growing number of studies have evidenced that hyperglycemia is a significant risk factor for severe SARS-CoV-2 infection and plays a key role in COVID-19 mortality and diabetes comorbidity. The uncontrolled hyperglycemia can produce low-grade inflammation and impaired immunity-mediated cytokine storm that fail multiple organs and sudden death in diabetic patients with SARS-CoV-2 infection. More importantly, SARS-CoV-2 infection and interaction with ACE2 receptors also contribute to pancreatic and metabolic impairment. Thus, using of diabetes medications has been suggested to be beneficial in the better management of diabetic COVID-19 patients. Herbal treatments, as safe and affordable therapeutic agents, have recently attracted a lot of attention in this field. Accordingly, in this review, we intend to have a deep look into the molecular mechanisms of diabetic complications in SARS-CoV-2 infection and explore the therapeutic potentials of herbal medications and natural products in the management of diabetic COVID-19 patients based on recent studies and the existing clinical evidence.

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Acknowledgements

The authors sincerely appreciate the Saveh and Urmia University of Medical Science that support us in this review.

Funding

In the current study, there was no funding source to be mentioned.

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Author notes

  1. Co-first author: Ighil di Bari.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Cellular and Molecular Research Center, Cellular and Molecular Medicine Research Institute, Urmia University of Medical Sciences, Orūmīyeh, Iran

    Yousef Rasmi

  2. Department of Biochemistry, School of Medicine, Urmia University of Medical Sciences, Orūmīyeh, Iran

    Yousef Rasmi

  3. Section of Nephrology, Department of Precision and Regenerative Medicine and Ionian Area (DiMePRe-J), University of Bari Aldo Moro, Bari, Italy

    Ighli di Bari

  4. Department of Mathematics and Natural Sciences, BRAC University, Dhaka, Bangladesh

    Shah Faisal & Munima Haque

  5. Department of Pharmacy Practice, Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences and Center of Excellence in Bioactive Resources for Innovative Clinical Applications, Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok, Thailand

    Pornanong Aramwit

  6. The Academy of Science, The Royal Society of Thailand, Dusit, Bangkok, 10330, Thailand

    Pornanong Aramwit

  7. Department of Soil and Rural, Centre for Agrarian Science, Campus II, Federal University of Paraiba, Areia, João Pessoa, Brazil

    Aline da Silva

  8. Department of Biochemistry, Saveh University of Medical Sciences, Saveh, Iran

    Elmira Roshani Asl

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Contributions

Concepts, Literature search: Yousef Rasmi, Elmira Roshani Asl, Manuscript preparation, Manuscript editing, Manuscript review: Yousef Rasmi, Elmira Roshani Asl, Alin da Silva, Ighil di Bari, Shah Faisal, Munima Haque, Preparation of figures and tables: Ighil di Bari, Munima Haque, Shah Faisal, Final Approval of the version to be published: Yousef Rasmi, Elmira Roshani Asl, Alin da Silva.

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Correspondence to Aline da Silva or Elmira Roshani Asl.

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The study was approved by the Ethical Committee of the Saveh University of Medical Sciences, Saveh, Iran.

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Rasmi, Y., di Bari, I., Faisal, S. et al. Herbal-based therapeutics for diabetic patients with SARS-Cov-2 infection. Mol Biol Rep 51, 316 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11033-024-09291-1

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