Fig. 1

A Kaplan–Meier curve of time to severe hyperglycaemia development according to the Common Terminology Criteria for Adverse Events (CTCAE) version 5.0. The hazard ratio was calculated using Cox proportional hazards regression and was adjusted for comorbid diabetes mellitus. B Markers of central insulin resistance and pancreatic function over time. The centre line represents the median, the lower and upper bound represent the interquartile range. P_interaction values were derived from linear mixed models and were corrected for multiple testing. HOMA-IR = Homeostatic Model Assessment for Insulin Resistance. C Volcano plot of differential protein abundance using proteomics performed by Somalogic Inc., with modified aptamers. Each dot represents a single protein. p-values were adjusted using the Benjamini–Hochberg method. D. COVID-19 disease severity is associated with peripheral insulin resistance and hyperglycaemic dysregulation. Inflammation, JNK deficiency, adipose tissue dysfunction and impaired microvascular perfusion are associated with insulin resistance. Treatment with imatinib improves IL-6, Ang-II, JNK1, JNK2 and adiponectin levels, and increases microvascular perfusion. The solid lines indicate that the relationship can be inferred from the findings from our study. Dashed lines indicates that the association can only be inferred from external studies. Ang-II = angiotensin II, IL-6 = InterLeukin-6, JNK1 = c-Jun N-terminal protein kinase 1, JNK2 = c-Jun N-terminal protein kinase 2