Photo: RODGER BOSCH / AFP / Getty Images
One investigation – still considered preliminary – provides information to explain reasons why some people have neurological symptoms after contracting covid – 19 .
Indicates that e l SARS-COV-2 enters a person’s body through the nose, and easily reaches the brain by infiltrating its cells, and this can cause memory problems or mental confusion that some people have suffered, even long after of your infection.
The investigation consists of two studies of the California National Primate Research Center , and of the Toronto Rotman Research Institute . Both suggest that this virus directly infects neurons .
Both studies were presented this week during a meeting of the Neuroscience Society , and could shed light on the symptoms of this disease, same as affect at least one third of the 46 million patients that there have been in the United States.
“Still we are in the phase where it does not even have a name ”, quotes NBC Dr. Nir Goldstein, director of the Center for Post-Covid Care and Recovery at the National Jewish Health in Denver, who did not participate in the investigation.
The virus that causes covid – 19 has potential to sneak into the brain despite the natural blood-brain barrier from the body, as can others like HIV. And when it happens, the brain’s immune cells fight the invader.
But since neurons are vital for the functioning of the body , the immune system does not attack them even if they are sick, so once the virus is in the neurons, it moves freely through the brain circuits.
“I think it is a much more dangerous infection. ( If the virus can travel through brain circuits), it can reach multiple brain regions that mediate things like cognition, memory, emotion, and mood ”, said John Morrison, who is a professor of neurology at the University of California, Davis, and also directed the research.
On the other hand, doctor Walter Koroshetz , director of the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, ensures that he is not convinced that SARS-CoV-2 can infect neurons , and argues that much more research is needed in this regard.
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