ACS Chem Neurosci
. 2020 Nov 4.
doi: 10.1021/acschemneuro.0c00676. Online ahead of print.
Seeding Brain Protein Aggregation by SARS-CoV-2 as a Possible Long-Term Complication of COVID-19 Infection
Omid Tavassoly 1 , Farinaz Safavi 2 , Iman Tavassoly 3
Affiliations
- PMID: 33147014
- DOI: 10.1021/acschemneuro.0c00676
Abstract
Postinfection complications of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) are still unknown, and one of the long-term concerns in infected people are brain pathologies. The question is that severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection may be an environmental factor in accelerating the sporadic neurodegeneration in the infected population. In this regard, induction of protein aggregation in the brain by SARS-CoV-2 intact structure or a peptide derived from spike protein subunits needs to be considered in futures studies. In this paper, we discuss these possibilities using pieces of evidence from other viruses.
Keywords: Brain; COVID-19; SARS-CoV-2; functional amyloids; neurodegeneration; protein aggregation.