ArticleJournal of medical virology2025
SARS-CoV-2 Productively Infects Human Hepatocytes and Induces Cell Death.
Article in Journal of medical virology, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 7 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
7 citing papers in PubMed.
- SARS-CoV-2 and diabetes: a post-pandemic reappraisal.Diabetologia · 2026Review
- Exacerbated Hepatic Stress and Systemic Metabolic Disruption Driven by SARS-CoV-2 P.1 Variant in K18-hACE2 Mice.Immunity, inflammation and disease · 2026Article
- COVID-19, the disease that changed the world.Medicine and pharmacy reports · 2026Review
- Morphological and Immunohistochemical Characteristics of Liver Inflammation in Patients with a History of COVID-19.Viruses · 2026Article
- Hepatic involvement in major respiratory viral infections.Clinical and experimental hepatology · 2025Review
- Post-COVID-19 Pandemic Sequelae in Liver Diseases.Life (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Review
- Ferroptosis and mitochondrial ROS are central to SARS-CoV-2-induced hepatocyte death.Frontiers in cellular and infection microbiology · 2025Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
24 authors.
Funding
Abstract
SARS-CoV-2 infection is accompanied by elevated liver enzymes, and patients with pre-existing liver conditions experience more severe disease. While it was known that SARS-CoV-2 infects human hepatocytes, our study determines the mechanism of infection, demonstrates viral replication and spread, and highlights direct hepatocyte damage. Viral replication was readily detectable upon infection of primary human hepatocytes and hepatoma cells with the ancestral SARS-CoV-2, Delta, and Omicron variants. Hepatocytes express the SARS-CoV-2 receptor ACE2 and the host cell protease TMPRSS2, and knocking down ACE2 and TMPRSS2 impaired SARS-CoV-2 infection. Progeny viruses released from infected hepatocytes showed the typical coronavirus morphology by electron microscopy and proved infectious when transferred to fresh cells, indicating that hepatocytes can contribute to virus spread. Importantly, SARS-CoV-2 infection rapidly induced hepatocyte death in a replication-dependent fashion, with the Omicron variant showing faster onset but less extensive cell death. C57BL/6 wild-type mice infected with a mouse-adapted SARS-CoV-2 strain showed high levels of viral RNA in liver and lung tissues. ALT peaked when viral RNA was cleared from the liver. Liver histology revealed profound tissue damage and immune cell infiltration, indicating that direct cytopathic effects of SARS-CoV-2 and immune-mediated killing of infected hepatocytes contribute to liver pathology.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.