SARS-CoV-2 invasion of the central nervous: a brief review

ABSTRACT

There is increasing evidence of the ability of the novel coronavirus to invade the central nervous system (CNS). But how does a respiratory virus invade the highly protected CNS? Here, we reviewed available literature and case reports to determine CNS involvement in COVID-19, and to identify potential regions of the brain that may be affected by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) and its possible route of entry into the brain to identify its pathogenicity. Based on the symptoms, the parietal lobe and the cerebellum are the likely targets of SARS-CoV-2; however, further work is needed to elucidate this. The presence of ACE2, used by SARS-CoV-2 for cell entry, in the brain as well as detection of the virus in the cerebrospinal fluid, further assert that SARS-COV-2 targets the brain, and therefore, medical practitioners should take that into account when dealing with patients suffering from COVID-19.

KEYWORDS:

• SARS-CoV-2
• coronavirus
• COVID-19
• 2019-nCoV
• brain
• central nervous system
• encephalitis

Declaration of funding

No funding was received to produce this article

Declaration of financial/other relationships

The contents of the paper and the opinions expressed within are those of the authors, and it was the decision of the authors to submit the manuscript for publication.

The authors declare that there is no conflict of interest.

Peer reviewers on this manuscript have no relevant financial or other relationships to disclose.

Authors’ contributions

RS and NAK envisioned the idea. MRM reviewed the available

literature under the supervision of RS and NAK. MRM and RS wrote the first draft of the manuscript. NAK and RS corrected the manuscript.

Declaration of interest

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.