DPP-4 inhibitors may improve the mortality of coronavirus disease 2019: A meta-analysis

Yan Yang; Zixin Cai; Jingjing Zhang

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0251916

DPP-4 inhibitors may improve the mortality of coronavirus disease 2019: A meta-analysis

PLoS One. 2021 May 20;16(5):e0251916. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0251916. eCollection 2021.

Authors

Yan Yang¹, Zixin Cai¹, Jingjing Zhang¹

Affiliation

¹ National Clinical Research Center for Metabolic Diseases, Metabolic Syndrome Research Center, Key Laboratory of Diabetes Immunology, Ministry of Education, and Department of Metabolism and Endocrinology, The Second Xiangya Hospital of Central South University, Changsha, Hunan, China.

Abstract

Aims: DPP-4 inhibitors are predicted to exert a protective effect on the progression of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). We conducted this meta-analysis to investigate this hypothesis.

Methods: Four databases, namely, PubMed, Web of Science, EMBASE and the Cochrane Library, were used to identify studies on DPP-4 and COVID-19. The outcome indicators were the mortality of COVID-19. Funnel plots, Begg's tests and Egger's tests were used to assess publication bias.

Results: Four articles were included with a total of 1933 patients with COVID-19 and type 2 diabetes. The use of DPP-4 inhibitors was negatively associated with the risk of mortality (odds ratio (OR) = 0.58 95% confidence interval (CI), 0.34-0.99).

Conclusions: DPP-4 inhibitors may improve the mortality of patients with COVID-19 and type 2 diabetes. As few relevant studies are available, more large-scale studies need to be performed.

Publication types

Meta-Analysis
Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

COVID-19 / epidemiology
COVID-19 / mortality*
Comorbidity
Diabetes Mellitus, Type 2 / drug therapy*
Diabetes Mellitus, Type 2 / epidemiology
Dipeptidyl-Peptidase IV Inhibitors / therapeutic use*
Humans
Survival Rate

Substances

Dipeptidyl-Peptidase IV Inhibitors

Grants and funding

This work was supported by grants from the National Natural Science Foundation of China [82070807, 91749118, 81770775, and 81730022], the Planned Science and Technology Project of Hunan Province [2017RS3015] and National Key Research and Development Program [2019YFA0801903 and 2018YFC2000100].