Neurological Damages in COVID-19 Patients
摘要
The SARS-CoV-2 virus emerged in late 2019 and caused COVID-19 with more than 774 million confirmed cases and over seven million deaths. The main organ infected by the virus is the respiratory system, while studies have reported several involvements of the extrapulmonary organs including the neurological system. The neurological manifestations of COVID-19 range from headache, neuropathy, olfactory disturbances, dizziness, and ataxia to more severe disorders such as ischemic or hemorrhagic stroke, encephalitis, and Guillain-Barre syndrome. The neural system involvement by the SARS-CoV-2 is mediated by the ACE2 receptor, which studies have shown that neurons and glial cells expressing this receptor. Consistently, postmortem COVID-19 patients’ autopsy reports showed the presence of the virus genome sequence in the brain tissue. Moreover, this virus could infect the cerebrovascular system and cause vasculitis and cerebrovascular accident. Cytokine storm secondary to infection with this virus can also be another possible mechanism for neurologic injury. However, despite various efforts, the exact mechanism of neurological involvement of COVID-19 patients has not been found yet, and further experimental studies are needed. In this chapter, we discuss the possible mechanisms of neurological involvement and the neurological manifestations of COVID-19.