Source: AP 2020
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TASS, June 5th. German molecular biologists have found that a new type of coronavirus enters the human brain through the olfactory nasal receptors, penetrating through them into the central nervous system (CNS). The preliminary results of observations and the possible consequences of this process, scientists published in an article in the bioRxiv electronic scientific library.
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“We discovered the first evidence that a new type of coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) penetrates the human brain through the olfactory epithelium, moving along the olfactory tract to the central regions of the brain. This explains the many characteristic symptoms of COVID-19, including the loss of smell and taste, ”the researchers write.
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Almost from the first days after the outbreak of a coronavirus infection, scientists know that SARS-CoV-2 affects not only the cells in the lungs, but also in other body tissues, including inside the mucous membrane of the nose, esophagus, blood vessels and heart, as well as several others organs.
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Even at the first stages of the epidemic in China, physicians from China discovered hints that the virus could penetrate into peripheral nerve cells and into brain tissue. Recently, doctors from Germany and France found that coronavirus cannot multiply inside the brain cells, but at the same time it can cause their mass death and accelerate neurodegenerative diseases.
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In a new study, a group of German scientists led by Professor of the Free University of Berlin (Germany) Frank Heppner examined tissue samples extracted from the bodies of 32 patients who died from the effects of coronavirus infection. Thanks to this, they learned the exact pathway for SARS-CoV-2 to enter the human brain.
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Infection gate
Scientists note that some patients with coronavirus died due to that blood clots appeared inside the vessels in their brain. because of Heppner and his colleagues began to suspect that this process provoked the fact that the coronavirus got inside the central nervous system.
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Disappointment or happiness
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End of the pandemic
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Guided by this idea, scientists collected cell samples from different regions of the patient’s brain and studied their structure under an electron microscope. In addition, they tried to find traces of RNA and SARS-CoV-2 proteins inside them. Comparing the concentration of viral particles and copies of the coronavirus genome, biologists tracked how the infection spread through the patients’ brains and understood how it got there.
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In particular, they found that the most traces of the virus were in the olfactory epithelium and nerve cells that connected this part of the nose to the olfactory centers inside the human brain. In addition to the RNA of the virus, in favor of this was the fact that inflammatory processes, usually associated with viral infections, proceeded in these regions.
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In addition, in some photographs of these cells, scientists noticed structures that are similar in size to SARS-CoV-2 particles, but that differ in shape. This may explain why another group of scientists from Germany could not find traces of viable particles of the virus inside the brain.
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In the near future, Heppner and his team plan to find out exactly how the coronavirus penetrates the cells of the olfactory epithelium, which receptors it uses and what helps new viral particles to get into neighboring neurons.
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Answers to these questions will help scientists understand how often depressed breathing and other complications associated with COVID-19 cause the virus to enter the brain, as well as evaluate the long-term effects of such an infection on the nervous system.
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It should be added that the article was not reviewed by independent experts and editors of scientific journals, as is usually the case in such cases. Therefore, conclusions from it and similar articles should be treated with caution.
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