NeuroCOVID: Insights into Neuroinvasion and Pathophysiology

Abstract

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), may lead to acute and chronic neurological symptoms (NeuroCOVID-19). SARS-CoV-2 may spread from the respiratory tract to the central nervous system as the central nervous system (CNS) of certain patients dying from COVID-19 shows virus-related neuropathological changes. Moreover, a syndrome found in many patients having passed a SARS-CoV-2 infection, which is termed long COVID and characterized by lasting fatigue and other diverse clinical features, may well have some of its pathological correlates inside the CNS. Although knowledge on the routes of SARS-CoV-2 neuroinvasion and the pathophysiology of NeuroCOVID have increased, the molecular mechanisms are not yet fully understood. This includes the key question: to understand if observed CNS damage is a direct cause of viral damage or indirectly mediated by an overshooting neuroimmune response.

Keywords

• SARS-CoV-2
• COVID-19
• neuroinvasion
• vagal nerve
• blood–brain barrier
• neurovascular unit