Obesity and COVID-19: molecular mechanisms linking both pandemics
- The coronavirus disease 2019 COVID-19 pandemic is rapidly spreading worldwide and is becoming a major public health crisis. Increasing evidence demonstrates a strong correlation between obesity and the COVID-19 disease. We have summarized recent studies and addressed the impact of obesity on COVID-19 in terms of hospitalization, severity, mortality, and patient outcome. We discuss the potential molecular mechanisms whereby obesity contributes to the pathogenesis of COVID-19. In addition to obesity-related deregulated immune response, chronic inflammation, endothelium imbalance, metabolic dysfunction, and its associated comorbidities, dysfunctional mesenchymal stem cells/adipose-derived mesenchymal stem cells may also play crucial roles in fueling systemic inflammation contributing to the cytokine storm and promoting pulmonary fibrosis causing lung functional failure, characteristic of severe COVID-19. Moreover, obesity may also compromise motile cilia on airway epithelial cells and impair functioning of the mucociliary escalators, reducing the clearance of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2). Obese diseased adipose tissues overexpress the receptors and proteases for the SARS-CoV-2 entry, implicating its possible roles as virus reservoir and accelerator reinforcing violent systemic inflammation and immune response. Finally, anti-inflammatory cytokines like anti-interleukin 6 and administration of mesenchymal stromal/stem cells may serve as potential immune modulatory therapies for supportively combating COVID-19. Obesity is conversely related to the development of COVID-19 through numerous molecular mechanisms and individuals with obesity belong to the COVID-19-susceptible population requiring more protective measures.
Author: | Andreas Hans RitterORCiDGND, Nina-Naomi KreisORCiDGND, Frank LouwenORCiDGND, Juping YuanORCiDGND |
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URN: | urn:nbn:de:hebis:30:3-555112 |
DOI: | https://doi.org/10.3390/ijms21165793 |
ISSN: | 1422-0067 |
Parent Title (English): | International journal of molecular sciences |
Publisher: | MDPI |
Place of publication: | Basel |
Document Type: | Article |
Language: | English |
Date of Publication (online): | 2020/08/12 |
Date of first Publication: | 2020/08/12 |
Publishing Institution: | Universitätsbibliothek Johann Christian Senckenberg |
Release Date: | 2020/09/10 |
Tag: | COVID-19; adipose-derived mesenchymal stem/stromal cells; cytokine storm; immune response; inflammation; obesity |
Volume: | 21 |
Issue: | 16, art. 5793 |
Page Number: | 28 |
First Page: | 1 |
Last Page: | 28 |
Note: | © 2020 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). |
HeBIS-PPN: | 469734892 |
Institutes: | Medizin |
Dewey Decimal Classification: | 6 Technik, Medizin, angewandte Wissenschaften / 61 Medizin und Gesundheit / 610 Medizin und Gesundheit |
Sammlungen: | Universitätspublikationen |
Open-Access-Publikationsfonds: | Medizin |
Licence (German): | Creative Commons - Namensnennung 4.0 |