VIRUSNE INFEKCIJE - RIZIČNI ČIMBENIK ZA RAZVOJ ŠEĆERNE BOLESTI TIPA 2?

Diabetes mellitus, chronic progressive metabolic disorder, is a global public-health problem. In individuals whose glucose levels do not reach diagnostic criteria for diabetes mellitus but are too high to be considered normal, there is a condition called prediabetes. Since prediabetes is a reversible condition, in which the development of diabetes mellitus can be prevented, many investigators aim to determine the point at which prediabetes shifts to diabetes. Scientists recognized infection as one of the potential risk factors for the development of diabetes mellitus type 2, more precisely as an ‘event’ that derails glycemic control from prediabetes to diabetes. The viral infection leads to decreased insulin sensitivity, which cannot be compensated by insulin production in the pancreas resulting in hyperglycemia and abrupt onset of diabetes in patients with prediabetes. If these findings were replicable in large-scale human studies, this observation could impact the way clinicians would provide healthcare to patients with prediabetes and viral infection. Viral infections usually do not require treatment, but the clinical approach would change if their impact on glucose tolerance could be prevented. Even though diabetes mellitus is a significant health issue, only current coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic has unfolded how little we know about the immunological mechanisms in patients with diabetes mellitus. We are now becoming aware of how important it is to investigate mechanisms, that elucidate immunoendocrinologic interactions, and to direct scientific efforts particularly in the field of immunometabolism to obtain as many information as possible, that would help us in the daily care of patients with diabetes mellitus.