Adipocytes in obesity : A perfect reservoir for SARS-CoV-2?

© 2023 Published by Elsevier Ltd..

Research evidence suggests that adipocytes in obesity might facilitate SARS-CoV-2 replication, for it was only found in adipose tissue of individuals with overweight or obesity but not lean individuals who died from COVID-19. As lipid metabolism is key to adipocyte function, and viruses are capable of exploiting and manipulating lipid metabolism of host cells for their own benefit of infection, we hypothesize that adipocytes could not only impair host immune defense against viral infection, but also facilitate SARS-CoV-2 entry, replication and assembly as a reservoir to boost the viral infection in obesity. The latter of which could mainly be mediated by SARS-CoV-2 hijacking the abnormal lipid metabolism in the adipocytes. If these were to be confirmed, an approach to combat COVID-19 in people with obesity by taking advantage of the abnormal lipid metabolism in adipocytes might be considered, as well as modifying lipid metabolism of other host cells as a potential adjunctive treatment for COVID-19.

Medienart:

E-Artikel

Erscheinungsjahr:

2023

Erschienen:

2023

Enthalten in:

Zur Gesamtaufnahme - volume:171

Enthalten in:

Medical hypotheses - 171(2023) vom: 23. Feb., Seite 111020

Sprache:

Englisch

Beteiligte Personen:

Zhu, JingJing [VerfasserIn]
Wilding, John P H [VerfasserIn]
Hu, Ji [VerfasserIn]

Links:

Volltext

Themen:

ACE2, angiotensin-converting enzyme 2
ATP, adenosine triphosphate
Adipocyte
COVID-19, coronavirus disease 2019
ER, endoplasmic reticulum
ERGIC, ER-to-Golgi intermediate compartment
FFAs, free fatty acids
Journal Article
LDs, lipid droplets
Lipid metabolism
Obesity
S protein, spike protein
SARS-CoV-2, severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2
Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2
TAGs, triacylglycerols

Anmerkungen:

Date Revised 07.02.2023

published: Print-Electronic

Citation Status PubMed-not-MEDLINE

doi:

10.1016/j.mehy.2023.111020

funding:

Förderinstitution / Projekttitel:

PPN (Katalog-ID):

NLM352520213