Covid-19 Infection in Diabetic Patients and the Need for a Better Animal Model: A Literature Review

Longitudinal clinical data on novel coronavirus SARS CoV-2 infection, the “Long CovidLong covid”, and basic science research are still in their infancy. Animal modelsAnimal model defined so far for COVID-19 failCOVID-19 to demonstrate many of the hallmarks of COVID-19 infection, including extrapulmonary involvement. Clinical observations show worse outcomes in Covid-19 patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) and cardiovascular diseaseCardiovascular diseases (CVD). This work describes COVID-19 infection in patients with T2DM, cardiac manifestations of the disease, and current animal models of COVID-19. The review uncovered a current lack of scientific consensus regarding how and to what extent the disease causes cardiac damage and what role metabolic dysregulation, such as T2DM diagnosis, plays in these outcomes. There is a need to develop disease models using animals with comorbidities seen in the general population (namely, T2DM) to demonstrate cardiac and other extrapulmonary manifestations of COVID-19 disease.