Impact of COVID‐19 in Liver Disease Progression

Abstract

Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus‐2 (SARS‐CoV‐2) is a novel coronavirus that causes coronavirus disease 19 (COVID‐19), which has infected millions of people worldwide in only a few months. A minority, but significant number, of infected individuals require hospitalization and intensive care. From the start of this new virus pandemic, it was apparent that obese and/or diabetic individuals had a bad prognosis for COVID‐19 progression, strongly suggesting an association between liver disease and severe COVID‐19. Because chronic liver disease (CLD) is associated with immune dysregulation and inflammation, it is unsurprising that patients with CLD may carry a greater risk of adverse outcomes following SARS‐CoV‐2 infection. Initial COVID‐19 data have also indicated that healthy infected individuals display abnormal liver function tests, suggesting a possible direct implication of SARS‐CoV‐2 in liver damage. Here we show that COVID‐19 affects the liver metabolism and increases the morbidity and mortality of individuals with underlying CLD.