Letter to the Editor
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2021. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Gastroenterol. Nov 28, 2021; 27(44): 7734-7738
Published online Nov 28, 2021. doi: 10.3748/wjg.v27.i44.7734
SARS-CoV-2 infection in liver transplant recipients: A complex relationship
Ricardo Wesley Alberca, Gil Benard, Gabriela Gama Freire Alberca, Maria Notomi Sato
Ricardo Wesley Alberca, Laboratorio de Dermatologia e Imunodeficiencias (LIM-56), Departamento de Dermatologia e Institute de Medicina Tropical, Faculdade de Medicina FMUSP, Universidade de São Paulo, São Paulo 01246-903, Brazil
Gil Benard, Gabriela Gama Freire Alberca, Maria Notomi Sato, Laboratorio de Dermatologia e Imunodeficiencias (LIM-56), Departamento de Dermatologia, Faculdade de Medicina FMUSP, Universidade de São Paulo, São Paulo 01246-903, Brazil
Author contributions: All authors contributed to the conception, writing, and review of the article and approved the submitted version.
Supported by Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP), No. 19/02679-7 and No. 20/13148-0.
Conflict-of-interest statement: The authors declare having no conflicts 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 NonCommercial (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: Ricardo Wesley Alberca, PhD, Academic Research, Research Fellow, Laboratorio de Dermatologia e Imunodeficiencias (LIM-56), Departamento de Dermatologia e Institute de Medicina Tropical, Faculdade de Medicina FMUSP, Universidade de São Paulo, 455-Cerqueira César, São Paulo 01246-903, Brazil. ricardowesley@gmail.com
Received: July 20, 2021
Peer-review started: July 20, 2021
First decision: August 6, 2021
Revised: August 14, 2021
Accepted: November 17, 2021
Article in press: November 17, 2021
Published online: November 28, 2021
Processing time: 127 Days and 20.4 Hours
Core Tip

Core Tip: There is not a consensus whether solid organ transplant recipients present increased severity or death rates due to coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) compared with the general population. In particular, liver allograft has a low risk of rejection, therefore enabling treatment with relatively less immunosuppressive regimens. The reduction in the production of proinflammatory cytokines, without a drastic suppression of the immune response, may benefit liver transplant recipients during COVID-19. Further investigations should compare different organ transplant recipients, elapsed time from the organ transplant, different immunosuppressive treatments, and their anti-SARS-CoV-2 response.