Natural Products with Therapeutic Action in Diabetes: A Coadjuvant Alternative Against COVID-19?

From the time that, in March, 2020, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared the acute respiratory syndrome caused by Coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2), better known as COVID-19, a pandemic, an effective treatment has been sought, without achieving this at 100%. SARS-CoV-2 mainly affects the respiratory airways, but it is also known to damage various organs and systems, giving rise to a slight symptomatology up to, even, death in some cases. Unfortunately, high comorbility has also been found, which is associated with chronic-degenerative diseases that raises the risk of mortality in patients. In this review, a description is made of some common factors in patients affected by COVID-19 with a diagnosis of prior diabetes. In this regard, the therapeutic effects are described of some plant species and their secondary metabolites that, in some previous studies, have demonstrated, to exert certain effects in patients diagnosed with diabetes, emphasizing that, while different vaccines are now available to meet the challenge of the pandemic, the information collected in this work could be useful in the search for alternative clinical therapies based on Traditional Medicine and on the chemistry of some plant-derived secondary metabolites in patients affected by COVID-19 and diabetes.