Review
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2021. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Meta-Anal. Jun 28, 2021; 9(3): 220-233
Published online Jun 28, 2021. doi: 10.13105/wjma.v9.i3.220
Post COVID-19 infection: Long-term effects on liver and kidneys
Swati Srivastava, Iti Garg
Swati Srivastava, Iti Garg, Defence Institute of Physiology and Allied Sciences, Defence Research and Development Organization, New Delhi 110054, Indiana, India
Author contributions: Srivastava S and Garg I contributed to literature review, manuscript writing and proof reading.
Conflict-of-interest statement: The authors declare have no conflict of interest.
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 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/
Corresponding author: Swati Srivastava, PhD, Senior Scientist, Defence Institute of Physiology and Allied Sciences, Defence Research and Development Organization, Ist Floor, Cafeteria Building, Lucknow Road, New Delhi 110054, Indiana, India. sri_swati@rediffmail.com
Received: January 25, 2021
Peer-review started: January 25, 2021
First decision: April 19, 2021
Revised: May 7, 2021
Accepted: June 4, 2021
Article in press: June 4, 2021
Published online: June 28, 2021
Abstract

Coronavirus disease 2019 is a pandemic, which has affected millions of people across the globe in the year 2020. This disease is caused by a virus, severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), that belongs to the family of coronaviruses and primarily affects the respiratory system. This infection has a wide spectrum of clinical manifestations ranging from asymptomatic form to mild, moderate and severe forms depending upon the age, comorbidity and immunity of an affected individual. Hyper-inflammatory response due to SARS-CoV-2 adversely affect several internal organs. Besides lung injury, which is the main outcome of SARS-CoV-2 infection, it has been reported to adversely impact other organs including the liver and kidneys. SARS-CoV-2 virus can also have a direct adverse impact on liver as well as kidneys due to systemic inflammatory response or drug toxicity, leading to elevated levels of liver injury markers and acute kidney injury. Clinical outcomes of SARS-CoV-2 infection could be worse in patients suffering from pre-existing liver and kidney disease. So far, there have been several reports on the mechanism of liver and kidney injury during SARS-CoV-2 viral attack. However, the long-term impact of this infection on these organs is yet to be understood. This review summarizes the possible causes and effects of SARS-CoV-2 on the liver and kidneys during the infection and post recovery based on available literature.

Keywords: Alanine aminotransferase, Aspartate aminotransferase, Acute Kidney injury, COVID-19, Kidneys, Liver, SARS-CoV-2

Core Tip: Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) infected patients with pre-existing liver and kidney comorbidities are likely to have a poorer clinical prognosis and are at higher risk of severe infection and increased mortality. Data indicates that COVID-19 infection causes acute kidney and liver damage. However, its long-term consequences are yet to be elucidated. Currently in the absence of specific therapy for this viral infection, further clinical studies are needed to understand COVID-19 pathology associated with liver and kidneys. The present review summarizes the effects of COVID-19 on the liver and kidneys during infection and post recovery.