Key Dates
None
National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK)
The National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK) intends to promote a new initiative by publishing a Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) to solicit applications to establish a longitudinal cohort of individuals who developed diabetes following SARS-CoV-2 infection for the purpose of characterizing individuals who develop diabetes post-infection and understanding their clinical course.
This Notice is being provided to allow potential applicants sufficient time to develop meaningful collaborations and responsive projects.
The FOA is expected to be published in late spring 2022 with an expected application due date in late fall 2022.
This FOA will utilize the U01 activity code. Details of the planned FOA are provided below.
Emerging epidemiologic evidence suggests increased incidence of diabetes following SARS-CoV-2 infection. In addition to direct viral-mediated mechanisms, other pandemic-related factors may be contributing to development of diabetes. For instance, adults and children have gained weight during the pandemic. Rates of poor mental health, including substance use, depression, and anxiety have increased. Elevated psychosocial stress is associated with metabolic disease potentially through direct (elevated systemic inflammation) and indirect mechanisms (suboptimal lifestyle habits such as sleep and physical activity). Additionally, individuals with post-COVID-19 incident diabetes may have been predisposed to developing diabetes prior to acute COVID-19 and other pandemic insults, and this increased incidence may reflect accelerated onset or an unmasking of pre-diabetes in individuals. Many of these indirect pandemic factors are also likely root contributors to racial and ethnic disparities in metabolic health surrounding COVID-19. Research is needed to comprehensively characterize the onset, clinical course, and physiology of new-onset diabetes after COVID-19, and the relationships among predisposing factors, SARS-CoV-2 infection, and diabetes.
To address this need, the planned FOA will invite investigator-initiated applications to establish a controlled longitudinal observational multi-center clinical study to characterize new onset diabetes and its clinical course following COVID-19. This study would recruit adults and children with new onset diabetes observed after SARS-CoV-2 infection and fully characterize the participants metabolically and clinically. Participants would be followed for 1-2 years to monitor the natural history and characterize the course of diabetes and glycemic response to therapy and assess any potential complications.
One award will be made for a multi-center clinical study. This Notice encourages investigators with expertise and insights into this clinical problem to begin to consider applying for this new FOA, including developing the study design with an appropriate comparator group, as well as assembling adequate numbers of collaborators and recruitment sites. Given the need to rapidly recruit individuals with new-onset diabetes in the context of waning SARS-CoV-2 infections, it is critical to expedite the launch of the study. Therefore, planning prior to application and award is essential, so the study can start quickly once an award is made. Since only one award will be made, each applicant will be expected to assemble a multi-center study with demographic and geographic diversity.
An important goal of the planned FOA is to establish and understand if there is a new form of diabetes associated with the SARS-CoV-2 virus, to allow future investigation into how these patients should be treated.
TBD
TBD
TBD
93.847
Applications are not being solicited at this time.
Please direct all inquiries to:
Barbara Linder, M.D., Ph.D.
National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK)
(301) 594-0021
Maren Laughlin, Ph.D.
National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK)
Phone: (301) 594-8802
E-mail: laughlinm@mail.nih.gov