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According to a new study from the University of Washington, SARS-CoV-2, the cause of COVID-19, can enter the brain.
The study suggests that people with COVID-19 suffer cognitive effects. The spike protein, often represented as the red arms of the virus, dictates which cells the virus can enter.
Lead author William A. Banks, a professor of medicine at the University of Washington School of Medicine and a physician and researcher for the Puget Sound Veterans Affairs Health System, said: “Usually the virus does the same thing as its binding protein. Banks said that binding proteins like S1 usually cause damage on their own by shedding the virus and causing inflammation. “
“The spike protein, often called the S1 protein; it probably causes the brain to release cytokines and inflammatory products. “
The intense inflammation caused by COVID-19 infection is called a cytokine storm. Upon seeing the virus and its proteins, the immune system overreacts in its attempt to kill the invading virus. The infected person is left with brain fog, fatigue, and other cognitive problems.
The S1 protein in SARS-CoV2 and the gp 120 protein in HIV-1 work in a similar way. They are glycoproteins, proteins that have many sugars, characteristics of proteins that bind to other receptors. Both proteins function as arms and hands for your viruses by latching onto other receptors. Both cross the blood-brain barrier and S1, like gp120, is likely to be toxic to brain tissues.
Banks said, “We know that when you have the COVID infection, you have trouble breathing and that is because there is an infection in the lung, but an additional explanation is that the virus enters the respiratory centers of the brain and causes problems there as well.”
Jacob Raber, a professor in the departments of Behavioral Neuroscience, Neurology, and Radiation Medicine, and his teams at Oregon Health and Science University, said: “In their experiments, S1 transport was faster in the olfactory bulb and kidney of males than in females. This observation could be related to the increased susceptibility of men to the most severe COVID-19 results. “
Banks said, “You don’t want to mess with this virus. Many of the effects that the COVID virus has could be accentuated or perpetuated or even caused by the entry of a virus into the brain, and those effects could last a long time. “
Magazine reference:
- Elizabeth M. Rhea et al., SARS-CoV-2 S1 protein crosses the blood-brain barrier in mice, Nature Neuroscience (2020). DOI: 10.1038 / s41593-020-00771-8
