Genetic insight into Covid-19 related liver injury

Metabolic dysfunction and fatty liver disease (FLD) are epidemiologically associated with increased risk of severe COVID-19 requiring hospitalization (1, 2). The mechanism may encompass promotion of inflammation by facilitation of liver injury, which is a frequent feature of severe COVID-19 (3). However, metabolic dysfunction rather than FLD itself may induce disease progression (2). Indeed, we previously showed that a genetic FLD-risk score does not predispose to severe COVID-19 in UK Biobank population-based cohort (UKBB) (4).