CD8A and diabetes mellitus: Based on the retrospective study on 306 patients of COVID-19 disease (129 with diabetes and 177 without diabetes), we first identified that patients with diabetes showed distinct immune characteristics from patients without diabetes, including markedly elevated cytokine level, reduced T-helper type 1 (Th1)/T-helper type 2 (Th2) cytokine ratios, and decreased number of CD4+ T cells, CD8+ T cells, and natural killer (NK) cells.