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

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World J Gastroenterol


. 2021 Apr 14;27(14):1406-1418.
doi: 10.3748/wjg.v27.i14.1406.
COVID-19 and the gastrointestinal tract: Source of infection or merely a target of the inflammatory process following SARS-CoV-2 infection?


Jacopo Troisi ¹ , Giorgia Venutolo ² , Meritxell Pujolassos Tany? ¹ , Matteo Delli Carri ¹ , Annamaria Landolfi ³ , Alessio Fasano ²



Affiliations

• PMID: 33911464
• PMCID: PMC8047540
• DOI: 10.3748/wjg.v27.i14.1406

Abstract

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.

Keywords: COVID-19; Dysbiosis; Fecal-oral transmission; Gastrointestinal symptoms; Gut microbiome; SARS-CoV-2; Zonulin.