Tovani-Palone MR, Pedersini P. Potential role of the microbiome in liver injury during COVID-19: Further research is needed. World J Gastroenterol 2023; 29(3): 503-507 [PMID: 36688015 DOI: 10.3748/wjg.v29.i3.503]
Corresponding Author of This Article
Marcos Roberto Tovani-Palone, PhD, Academic Research, Department of Research Analytics, Saveetha Dental College and Hospitals, Saveetha Institute of Medical and Technical Sciences (SIMATS), Poonamallee High Road, Velappanchavadi, Chennai 600077, India. marcos_palone@hotmail.com
Research Domain of This Article
Microbiology
Article-Type of This Article
Minireviews
Open-Access Policy of This Article
This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
World J Gastroenterol. Jan 21, 2023; 29(3): 503-507 Published online Jan 21, 2023. doi: 10.3748/wjg.v29.i3.503
Potential role of the microbiome in liver injury during COVID-19: Further research is needed
Marcos Roberto Tovani-Palone, Paolo Pedersini
Marcos Roberto Tovani-Palone, Department of Research Analytics, Saveetha Dental College and Hospitals, Saveetha Institute of Medical and Technical Sciences (SIMATS), Chennai 600077, India
Paolo Pedersini, IRCCS Fondazione Don Carlo Gnocchi, Milan 20148, Italy
Author contributions: Tovani-Palone MR contributed to study conception and design and writing of the manuscript; Pedersini P contributed to study design and critical review.
Conflict-of-interest statement: The authors declare no conflicts of interests.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: https://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Marcos Roberto Tovani-Palone, PhD, Academic Research, Department of Research Analytics, Saveetha Dental College and Hospitals, Saveetha Institute of Medical and Technical Sciences (SIMATS), Poonamallee High Road, Velappanchavadi, Chennai 600077, India. marcos_palone@hotmail.com
Received: September 13, 2022 Peer-review started: September 13, 2022 First decision: October 19, 2022 Revised: November 30, 2022 Accepted: December 21, 2022 Article in press: December 21, 2022 Published online: January 21, 2023
Abstract
Although different studies have associated coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) with the occurrence of liver injury, the hepatic injury route during the COVID-19 course is not yet fully understood. In order to better understand the mechanisms of the disease, the human gut microbiota has been the subject of extensive discussion in the context of COVID-19 pathophysiology. However, many questions remain, including the risks of liver injury due to COVID-19 specific populations. Further research in this field could allow the discovery of new personalized treatment strategies aimed at improving the microbiota composition, thereby reducing COVID-19 severity and its complications in different populations. In this article, we discussed basic mechanisms of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 infection and recent evidence on the relationship between COVID-19, the gut microbiome and liver injury as well as proposed recommendations for further research.
Core Tip: Although different studies have associated coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) with the occurrence of liver injury, the hepatic injury route during the COVID-19 course is not yet fully understood. Further research is needed to better understand the impacts of changes of the gut microbiota and immunology of COVID-19.
