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World J Gastroenterol. Apr 21, 2023; 29(15): 2283-2293
Published online Apr 21, 2023. doi: 10.3748/wjg.v29.i15.2283
Mechanisms of gastrointestinal barrier dysfunction in COVID-19 patients
Weijie Xue, Masaki Honda, Taizo Hibi
Weijie Xue, Masaki Honda, Taizo Hibi, Department of Transplantation and Pediatric Surgery, Kumamoto University, Kumamoto 860-8556, Japan
Author contributions: Xue W and Honda M designed the research; Xue W and Honda M performed the research; Xue W, Honda M and Hibi T analyzed the data; Xue W and Honda M wrote the paper.
Conflict-of-interest statement: Authors declare no conflict of interests for this article.
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: https://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Masaki Honda, MD, PhD, Assistant Professor, Department of Transplantation and Pediatric Surgery, Kumamoto University, 1-1-1 Honjo, Chuo-ku, Kumamoto 860-8556, Japan. honda.masaki@kuh.kumamoto-u.ac.jp
Received: December 29, 2022
Peer-review started: December 29, 2022
First decision: February 1, 2023
Revised: February 13, 2023
Accepted: March 29, 2023
Article in press: March 29, 2023
Published online: April 21, 2023
Processing time: 105 Days and 23.2 Hours
Core Tip

Core Tip: Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has become a major global public health event, resulting in a significant social and economic burden. Although COVID-19 was initially characterized as an upper respiratory and pulmonary infection, recent evidence suggests that it is a complex disease including gastrointestinal symptoms. Moreover, it remains unclear whether the gastrointestinal symptoms are caused by direct infection of the gastrointestinal tract by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) or are the result of systemic immune activation and subsequent dysregulation of homeostatic mechanisms. This review provides a brief overview of the mechanisms by which SARS-CoV-2 disrupts gastrointestinal barrier integrity.