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NEW YORK: The headaches, confusion and delirium that some Covid-19 patients experience could be the result of the coronavirus directly invading the brain, according to a study published online Wednesday. The study is still preliminary, but it offers several new lines of evidence to support what was previously a largely unproven theory.
According to the paper, which was led by Yale immunologist Akiko Iwasaki and has not yet been peer-reviewed, the virus is capable of replicating within the brain and its presence deprives nearby brain cells of oxygen, although the prevalence of this still remains. has not been achieved. Clear.
It wouldn’t be completely shocking if SARS-CoV-2 were capable of breaking the blood-brain barrier. The Zika virus, for example, does this too, causing significant brain damage in fetuses. But doctors had until now believed that the neurological impacts seen in about half of all patients could be the result of an abnormal immune response known as a cytokine storm that causes inflammation of the brain, rather than the virus directly invading.
The virus can reach the brain through the olfactory bulb, which regulates smell, through the eyes or even from the bloodstream. It is not clear which route the pathogen is taking and whether it is taking it frequently enough. Investigators will need to analyze autopsy samples to estimate how common it is.
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According to the paper, which was led by Yale immunologist Akiko Iwasaki and has not yet been peer-reviewed, the virus is capable of replicating within the brain and its presence deprives nearby brain cells of oxygen, although the prevalence of this still remains. has not been achieved. Clear.
It wouldn’t be completely shocking if SARS-CoV-2 were capable of breaking the blood-brain barrier. The Zika virus, for example, does this too, causing significant brain damage in fetuses. But doctors had until now believed that the neurological impacts seen in about half of all patients could be the result of an abnormal immune response known as a cytokine storm that causes inflammation of the brain, rather than the virus directly invading.
The virus can reach the brain through the olfactory bulb, which regulates smell, through the eyes or even from the bloodstream. It is not clear which route the pathogen is taking and whether it is taking it frequently enough. Investigators will need to analyze autopsy samples to estimate how common it is.
