COVID-19 and diabetes in 2020: a systematic review

Attempts were made to review the literature on diabetic patients who experience complications when they contract COVID-19, and to determine whether ethnicity and other risk factors play an important role in the development of symptoms and their severity, as well as responding to medications. A literature search was performed using fve keywords, namely COVID-19, diabetes, ethnicity, medications, and risk factors between January 2019 and December 2020 using electronic databases such as PubMed, Science Direct, Google Scholar, Springer Link, and Scopus. Forty studies were included. The review indicated that diabetes was a signifcant risk factor for poorer outcomes and increased mortality associated with COVID-19. There were several risk factors for diabetic patients that increased their likelihood of poorer outcomes associated with COVID-19. These included black and Asian ethnicity, male sex with high BMI. In conclusion, patients with diabetes of black or Asian origin with high BMI, male sex, and older age had an increased risk of poorer outcomes associated with COVID-19. This highlights the importance of considering the history of the patient in prioritising care and treatment

Stress-Mediated Increases in Systemic and Local Epinephrine Impair Skin Wound Healing: Potential New Indication for Beta Blockers

Rivkah Isseroff and colleagues describe how stress-induced elevation of epinephrine levels can impair the healing of burns in mice and suggest that β2 adrenergic receptor antagonists may have a role in improving skin wound repair

A Fiber-Optic Fluorescence Microscope Using a Consumer-Grade Digital Camera for In Vivo Cellular Imaging

BACKGROUND: Early detection is an essential component of cancer management. Unfortunately, visual examination can often be unreliable, and many settings lack the financial capital and infrastructure to operate PET, CT, and MRI systems. Moreover, the infrastructure and expense associated with surgical biopsy and microscopy are a challenge to establishing cancer screening/early detection programs in low-resource settings. Improvements in performance and declining costs have led to the availability of optoelectronic components, which can be used to develop low-cost diagnostic imaging devices for use at the point-of-care. Here, we demonstrate a fiber-optic fluorescence microscope using a consumer-grade camera for in vivo cellular imaging. METHODS: The fiber-optic fluorescence microscope includes an LED light, an objective lens, a fiber-optic bundle, and a consumer-grade digital camera. The system was used to image an oral cancer cell line labeled with 0.01% proflavine. A human tissue specimen was imaged following surgical resection, enabling dysplastic and cancerous regions to be evaluated. The oral mucosa of a healthy human subject was imaged in vivo, following topical application of 0.01% proflavine. FINDINGS: The fiber-optic microscope resolved individual nuclei in all specimens and tissues imaged. This capability allowed qualitative and quantitative differences between normal and precancerous or cancerous tissues to be identified. The optical efficiency of the system permitted imaging of the human oral mucosa in real time. CONCLUSION: Our results indicate this device as a useful tool to assist in the identification of early neoplastic changes in epithelial tissues. This portable, inexpensive unit may be particularly appropriate for use at the point-of-care in low-resource settings

␤2-Adrenergic Receptor Signaling Mediates Corneal Epithelial Wound Repair

PURPOSE. ␤-Adrenergic receptor (AR) antagonists are frequently prescribed ophthalmic drugs, yet previous investigations into how catecholamines affect corneal wound healing have yielded conflicting results. With the use of an integrated pharmacologic and genetic approach, the authors investigated how the ␤-AR impacts corneal epithelial healing. METHODS. Migratory rates of cultured adult murine corneal epithelial (AMCE) cells and in vivo corneal wound healing were examined in ␤2-AR ϩ/ϩ and ␤2-AR Ϫ/Ϫ mice. Signaling pathways were evaluated by immunoblotting. RESULTS. The ␤-AR agonist isoproterenol decreased AMCE cell migratory speed to 70% of untreated controls, and this was correlated with a 0.60-fold decrease in levels of activated phospho-ERK (P-ERK). Treatment with the ␤-AR antagonist (timolol) increased speed 33% and increased P-ERK 2.4-fold (P Ͻ 0.05). The same treatment protocols had no effect on AMCE cells derived from ␤2-AR Ϫ/Ϫ mice; all treatment groups showed statistically equivalent migratory speeds and ERK phosphorylation. In ␤2-AR ϩ/ϩ animals, the ␤-AR agonist (isoproterenol) delayed the rate of in vivo corneal wound healing by 79%, whereas ␤-AR antagonist (timolol) treatment increased the rate of healing by 16% (P Ͻ 0.05) compared with saline-treated controls. In contrast, in the ␤2-AR Ϫ/Ϫ mice, all treatment groups demonstrated equivalent rates of wound healing. Additionally, murine corneal epithelial cell expressed the catecholamine-synthesizing enzyme tyrosine hydroxylase and detectable levels of epinephrine (184.5 pg/mg protein). CONCLUSIONS. The authors provide evidence of an endogenous autocrine catecholamine signaling pathway dependent on an intact ␤2-AR for the modulation of corneal epithelial wound repair. (Invest Ophthalmol Vis Sci

COVID-19 and diabetes in 2020:a systematic review

Abstract Attempts were made to review the literature on diabetic patients who experience complications when they contract COVID-19, and to determine whether ethnicity and other risk factors play an important role in the development of symptoms and their severity, as well as responding to medications. A literature search was performed using five keywords, namely COVID-19, diabetes, ethnicity, medications, and risk factors between January 2019 and December 2020 using electronic databases such as PubMed, Science Direct, Google Scholar, Springer Link, and Scopus. Forty studies were included. The review indicated that diabetes was a significant risk factor for poorer outcomes and increased mortality associated with COVID-19. There were several risk factors for diabetic patients that increased their likelihood of poorer outcomes associated with COVID-19. These included black and Asian ethnicity, male sex with high BMI. In conclusion, patients with diabetes of black or Asian origin with high BMI, male sex, and older age had an increased risk of poorer outcomes associated with COVID-19. This highlights the importance of considering the history of the patient in prioritising care and treatment