Nature - multiple mechanisms of Covid brain harm, etc..

[kiwibird]

https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-021-01693-6

Growing evidence suggests that the coronavirus causes ‘brain fog’ and other neurological symptoms through multiple mechanisms.
...
Studies now suggest that SARS-CoV-2 can infect astrocytes, a type of cell that’s abundant in the brain and has many functions. “Astrocytes do quite a lot that supports normal brain function,” including providing nutrients to neurons to keep them working, says Arnold Kriegstein, a neurologist at the University of California, San Francisco.
....
Evidence has also accumulated that SARS-CoV-2 can affect the brain by reducing blood flow to it — impairing neurons’ function and ultimately killing them.

Pericytes are cells found on small blood vessels called capillaries throughout the body — including in the brain. A February preprint reported that SARS-CoV-2 could infect pericyte-like cells in brain organoids[SUP]8[/SUP].

Hattip Celia Green
@1CeliaGreen of Twitter.

 

[sharon sanders]

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[kiwibird]

https://www.thelancet.com/journals/landia/article/PIIS2213-8587(21)00291-6/fulltext

In summary, in our study of 40 patients who died from COVID-19, we did not observe widespread degradation of human adrenals that might lead to manifestation of the adrenal crisis. However, our study shows that the adrenal gland is a prominent target for the viral infection and ensuing cellular damage, which could trigger a predisposition for adrenal dysfunction.

 

[kiwibird]

https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-020-02599-5

Some people hospitalized with COVID-19 were experiencing delirium: they were confused, disorientated and agitated2. In April, a group in Japan published3 the first report of someone with COVID-19 who had swelling and inflammation in brain tissues. Another report4 described a patient with deterioration of myelin, a fatty coating that protects neurons and is irreversibly damaged in neurodegenerative diseases such as multiple sclerosis.

 

[kiwibird]

From same article

In a May preprint7, the team showed that SARS-CoV-2 could infect neurons in these organoids, killing some and reducing the formation of synapses between them. Work by immunologist Akiko Iwasaki and her colleagues at Yale University School of Medicine in New Haven, Connecticut, seems to confirm this using human organoids, mouse brains and some post-mortem examinations, according to a preprint published on 8 September8.

 

[kiwibird]

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41582-021-00593-7

Differences in the prevalence of the various neurological symptoms were observed between older (aged 60 years or more) and young (aged less than 18 years) subpopulations. Acute confusion or delirium, fatigue and myalgia tended to dominate in the older group. In patients aged under 18 years, the most common neurological symptoms were impairment of smell and/or taste and headache, and seizures were also noted in some individuals. Alarmingly, mortality in patients with COVID-19 who had one or more neurological manifestations was found to be 27% and was especially high in patients aged 60 years or more. The finding that the prevalence of stroke was 1.2% in people with COVID-19, compared with only 0.2% in those with influenza, is also concerning[SUP]1[/SUP].

Topical therapy with antiviral drugs and antibodies, administered via nebulizers and nasal sprays at the portal of entry of SARS-CoV-2, is expected to reduce viral loads and minimize the incidence of neurological complications[SUP]10[/SUP].

A global consensus is needed on diagnostic approaches, management modalities and follow-up to ensure the well-being of long-haulers in general, and to address the neurological features of COVID-19 in particular[SUP]9[/SUP]. Topical therapy with antiviral drugs and antibodies, administered via nebulizers and nasal sprays at the portal of entry of SARS-CoV-2, is expected to reduce viral loads and minimize the incidence of neurological complications[SUP]10[/SUP].

 

[sharon sanders]

bump this