Effects of COVID-19 on vital organs in patients infected with SARS-CoV-2

Abstract

The world is now facing one of the most devastating public health concern where the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection is spreading all over the world initiating from Wuhan, China, started from December, 2019. The World Health Organization (WHO) already announced the situation as pandemic all over the world. According to the webpage of WHO, this SARS-CoV-2 has been spreading all over the world (223 countries, areas or territories) with 126,890,643 confirmed cases of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) and 2,778,619 confirmed deaths (as of March 30, 2021). Accumulated published documents indicate that the SARS-CoV-2 virus primarily affects the lungs causing hypoxia, which is the leading cause of death. There are many reports describing that with the progress of this disease, many other organs (such as heart, kidney, liver, brain) of the affected person start to malfunction. Though SARS-CoV-2 uses the cell surface receptor angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE-2) expressed by lungs, cardiovascular system, and kidneys but it is still not clear except for lungs that all these other organs are directly affected by this virus or not. Therefore, the aim of this review is to gather informations about affected/damaged organs or tissues and consequences of this damage in COVID-19 patients.