Insights Into the COVID-19 Infection Related to Inherited Metabolic Diseases

Abstract

People with respiratory problems and people prone to decompensations are particularly vulnerable to COVID-19. These characteristics are often present in patients with inherited metabolic diseases (IMDs). It is therefore conceivable that patients with IMDs are at a greater risk of infection and may present a more serious form of COVID-19 disease. Currently available data about the impact of COVID-19 on patients suffering from IMDs are very scarce and no study has been able to confirm this hypothesis. In this chapter, the authors have tried to show that the severity of COVID-19 infection in patients with IMDs is specific to the group that the disease belongs. Indeed, lysosomal storage diseases caused by impaired degradation and accumulation of metabolites in lysosomes leads to dysfunction of lysosomal and possible impairment of the COVID-19 egress process. The fact that COVID-19 disease may be considered itself as an IMD was also discussed to highlight the interference which can exist between COVID-19 disease and IMDs in a patient.