Covid-19 is currently associated with the health disorder of brain fog.
REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, JAKARTA — New research is trying to study the link between Covid-19 and various neurological symptoms, including brain fog and confusion. Autopsy studies have also detected the coronavirus in the human brain. However, how the virus got there remains a mystery.
Previous studies have shown the ACE2 receptor, which the virus normally uses to enter cells, is barely detectable in the brain, or unlike the cells lining the nose, mouth and lungs. Researchers at the Pasteur Institute in France Chiara Zurzolo and her colleagues have found the coronavirus appears to have a way of getting into cells lacking the ACE2 receptor through cells that have it.
The research team conducted experiments on plates with the coronavirus and two different types of cells. One called SH-SY5Y was used to model human brain cells. Another cell type, Vero E6 was used to model cells that line the surface of the body, including the nose.
The model brain cells could not be infected with the coronavirus because they lacked the ACE2 receptor. However, when they were incubated in the same container as the nasal cell model, which did have this receptor, they became infected.
Under a very powerful electron microscope, the researchers saw that upon entering the nasal cell model, the virus stimulated the cells to grow tiny tubes called tunneling nanotubes that formed connections with the model brain cells. Researchers saw the virus using the tiny tube to move between two types of cells. Nanotubes are already known to transport certain structures and other viral particles between distant cells.
“I think this is a very interesting study because it provides a nice and neat mechanism by which viruses can be transferred from one cell to another while ignoring the need for ACE2 receptors,” said researcher Frederic Meunier from the University of Queensland in Australia. New ScientistSaturday (23/7/2022).
However, because the experiments were limited to cells in plates, Meunier said more research is needed to confirm the same mechanism occurs in the brain. Zurzolo says his group is preparing an experiment that is more similar to the interactions between cells in the nose and brain.
If the nanotubes were confirmed to transport the coronavirus from the nose to the brain, Zurzolo assured that researchers might be able to develop a drug to block it. “Right now, we don’t have a specific nanotube tunneling inhibitor molecule, but we’re doing screening to find one,” Zurzolo said.
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