SARS‐CoV‐2 virus and liver expression of host receptors: Putative mechanisms of liver involvement in COVID‐19

Pirola, Carlos J; Sookoian, Silvia

Zhang et al. showed that COVID‐19 affected patients’ present liver biochemistry abnormalities, including elevation of aminotransferases, gamma‐glutamyl transferase, and alkaline phosphatase (1). Hence, several possible clinical scenarios in the setting of liver diseases have been postulated. First, patients with chronic liver disease may be more vulnerable to the severe clinical consequences of COVID‐19, including oxygen desaturation and hypoxemia due to severe pneumonia or the cytokine storm (1;2). Second, liver biochemistry abnormalities are the consequence of drug toxicity.