Details

Autor(en) / Beteiligte

• Troisi, Jacopo
• Venutolo, Giorgia
• Pujolassos Tanyà, Meritxell
• Delli Carri, Matteo
• Landolfi, Annamaria
• Fasano, Alessio

Titel

COVID-19 and the gastrointestinal tract: Source of infection or merely a target of the inflammatory process following SARS-CoV-2 infection?

Ist Teil von

• World journal of gastroenterology : WJG, 2021-04, Vol.27 (14), p.1406-1418

Ort / Verlag

United States: Baishideng Publishing Group Inc

Erscheinungsjahr

2021

Quelle

Free E-Journal (出版社公開部分のみ）

Beschreibungen/Notizen

• Gastrointestinal (GI) symptoms have been described in a conspicuous percentage of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) patients. This clinical evidence is supported by the detection of viral RNA in stool, which also supports the hypothesis of a possible fecal-oral transmission route. The involvement of GI tract in severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection is corroborated by the theoretical assumption that angiotensin converting enzyme 2, which is a SARS-CoV-2 target receptor, is present along the GI tract. Studies have pointed out that gut dysbiosis may occur in COVID-19 patients, with a possible correlation with disease severity and with complications such as multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children. However, the question to be addressed is whether dysbiosis is a consequence or a contributing cause of SARS-CoV-2 infection. In such a scenario, pharmacological therapies aimed at decreasing GI permeability may be beneficial for COVID-19 patients. Considering the possibility of a fecal-oral transmission route, water and environmental sanitation play a crucial role for COVID-19 containment, especially in developing countries.