More than three quarters of the COVID-19 patients treated in a Dutch Intensive Care Unit (IC) were overweight. And because overweight people are 44% more likely to die from COVID-19, there’s every reason to take that connection seriously. In fact, the risk of death rises to almost 80% for people with severe obesity.
It is therefore assumed that adipose tissue, especially abdominal fat, is the cause of the severe course of COVID-19 in these patients. But whether that is really the case, that’s a team of it University Medical Center Groningen (UMCG) sifting through the next two years.
The intensive care unit of the UMCG has received a subsidy of more than 450,000 euros ZonMW to find out why COVID-19 patients in the ICU are much more overweight than patients who do not come to the ICU. The UMCG is also looking into the reason why they have weight problems more often than IC patients with other diseases. In addition, it is being investigated whether the serious (lung) inflammations that COVID-19 patients can develop can be treated with the medicine Resveratrol. On the research led by Peter van der Voort, head of intensive care at the UMCG, doctors and researchers from the UMCG are working together with colleagues from Amphia hospital and Amsterdam UMC.
Belly fat
Belly fat produces substances that increase the inflammatory response, including in the lungs. The question is whether this is more the case with COVID-19 than with other patients and what a possible treatment could be. Blood samples and adipose tissue from COVID patients and other patients are therefore compared and examined in the laboratory.
The research is carried out in 3 phases and must be completed within 24 months. The first interim results can be expected earlier.
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