Diabetes Obes Metab: DPP-4 Inhibitor Treatment with COVID-19 for Type 2 Diabetes Patients

Since other coronaviruses enter cells by binding to dipeptide peptidease-4 (DPP-4), it is speculated that DPP-4 inhibitors (DPP-4i) may have anti-SARS-CoV-2 activityIn a recent study published in the journal Diabetes Obesity and Metabolism, the leading journal for metabolic endocrine diseases, researchers analyzed epidemiological data to support or abandon this hypothesis in the absence of clinical trial resultsresearchers retrieved information about the use of DPP-4i in patients with type 2 diabetes (T2D) hospitalized with COVID-19 in ItalyFor comparison, the researchers examined THE use of DPP-4i in t2D patients with matching in the same region85 of the 403 COVID-19 hospitalizations had T2DT2D patients with COVID-19 (10.6%) and 14,857 matching patients in the region (8.8%) or 793 matching patients in local clinics (15.4%), 8284 matching patients hospitalized for other reasons (8.5%) had a similar chance of using DPP-4i, and 71 patients hospitalized with COVID-19 pneumonia (11.3%) had similar rates of use of DPP-4i compared to 351 patients with other cause pneumonia matching (10.3%)Patients with T2D with COVID-19 received TREATMENT with DPP-4i with similar disease outcomes as those who did not receive DIP-4i treatmentin general, the researchers found no evidence that DPP-4i may have affected COVID-19 hospitalization