ACS Chem Neurosci . Inflammatory Response Leads to Neuronal Death in Human Post-Mortem Cerebral Cortex in Patients with COVID-19

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ACS Chem Neurosci


. 2021 Jun 8.
doi: 10.1021/acschemneuro.1c00111. Online ahead of print.
Inflammatory Response Leads to Neuronal Death in Human Post-Mortem Cerebral Cortex in Patients with COVID-19


Mahdi Eskandarian Boroujeni ¹ , Leila Simani ² , Hans A R Bluyssen ¹ , Hamid Reza Samadikhah ³ , Soheila Zamanlui Benisi ⁴ , Sanaz Hassani ¹ , Nader Akbari Dilmaghani ² , Mobina Fathi ⁵ , Kimia Vakili ⁵ , Gholam-Reza Mahmoudiasl ^{6 7} , Hojjat Allah Abbaszadeh ^{7 8} , Meysam Hassani Moghaddam ⁹ , Mohammad-Amin Abdollahifar ^{8 10} , Abbas Aliaghaei ^{8 10}



Affiliations

• PMID: 34100287
• DOI: 10.1021/acschemneuro.1c00111

Abstract

The recent coronavirus disease of 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has adversely affected people worldwide. A growing body of literature suggests the neurological complications and manifestations in response to COVID-19 infection. Herein, we explored the inflammatory and immune responses in the post-mortem cerebral cortex of patients with severe COVID-19. The participants comprised three patients diagnosed with severe COVID-19 from March 26, 2020, to April 17, 2020, and three control patients. Our findings demonstrated a surge in the number of reactive astrocytes and activated microglia, as well as low levels of glutathione along with the upregulation of inflammation- and immune-related genes IL1B, IL6, IFITM, MX1, and OAS2 in the COVID-19 group. Overall, the data imply that oxidative stress may invoke a glial-mediated neuroinflammation, which ultimately leads to neuronal cell death in the cerebral cortex of COVID-19 patients.

Keywords: COVID-19; cerebral cortex; neuroinflammation; oxidative stress.