Tavčar, Petra and Potokar, Maja and Kolenc, Marko and Korva, Miša and Avšič-Županc, Tatjana and Zorec, Robert and Jorgačevski, Jernej (2021) Neurotropic Viruses, Astrocytes, and COVID-19. Frontiers in Cellular Neuroscience, 15. ISSN 1662-5102
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Abstract
At the end of 2019, the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) was discovered in China, causing a new coronavirus disease, termed COVID-19 by the WHO on February 11, 2020. At the time of this paper (January 31, 2021), more than 100 million cases have been recorded, which have claimed over 2 million lives worldwide. The most important clinical presentation of COVID-19 is severe pneumonia; however, many patients present various neurological symptoms, ranging from loss of olfaction, nausea, dizziness, and headache to encephalopathy and stroke, with a high prevalence of inflammatory central nervous system (CNS) syndromes. SARS-CoV-2 may also target the respiratory center in the brainstem and cause silent hypoxemia. However, the neurotropic mechanism(s) by which SARS-CoV-2 affects the CNS remain(s) unclear. In this paper, we first address the involvement of astrocytes in COVID-19 and then elucidate the present knowledge on SARS-CoV-2 as a neurotropic virus as well as several other neurotropic flaviviruses (with a particular emphasis on the West Nile virus, tick-borne encephalitis virus, and Zika virus) to highlight the neurotropic mechanisms that target astroglial cells in the CNS. These key homeostasis-providing cells in the CNS exhibit many functions that act as a favorable milieu for virus replication and possibly a favorable environment for SARS-CoV-2 as well. The role of astrocytes in COVID-19 pathology, related to aging and neurodegenerative disorders, and environmental factors, is discussed. Understanding these mechanisms is key to better understanding the pathophysiology of COVID-19 and for developing new strategies to mitigate the neurotropic manifestations of COVID-19.
Item Type: | Article |
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Subjects: | Science Repository > Medical Science |
Depositing User: | Managing Editor |
Date Deposited: | 17 Apr 2023 03:42 |
Last Modified: | 01 Feb 2024 03:56 |
URI: | http://research.manuscritpub.com/id/eprint/1967 |