Could SARS-CoV-2 Invade the Brain?

Jin Jun Luo and Nae Dun
 
Abstract

COVID-19 caused by Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) is highly contagious. Patients with COVID-19 usually have respiratory symptoms such as fever, cough and difficulty in breathing, but also exhibit symptoms such as anosmia/hyposmia, ageusia/dysgeusia, unilateral or bilateral weakness of limbs, altered mentation, seizures etc. owing to complicated or concomitant onset of neurological disorders such as stroke, encephalopathy, meningitis, encephalitis, Guillain-Barré syndrome or Miller-Fisher syndrome. The route by which SARS-CoV-2 enters the brain and infects neurons remains to be explored, but it starts from binding to a functional receptor of angiotensinconverting enzyme 2 before the virus enters into host cells. In this article we summarize current knowledge from the literature on coronavirus related to SARS-CoV-2 and postulate the possible pathways for SARS-CoV-2 to enter into the brain.

Published on: May 16, 2020
doi: 10.17756/jnen.2020-S1-002
Citation: Luo JJ, Dun N. 2020. Could SARSCoV-2 Invade the Brain? J Neurol Exp Neurosci 6(S1): S4-S8.
 
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