According to a new paper by Serena Spudich and Avindra Nath, cases of neurological “Long Covid” symptoms may result from the emergence and persistence of these mechanisms and the neurological symptoms that accompany COVID-19.
“With millions of individuals affected, nervous system complications pose public health challenges for rehabilitation and recovery and for disruptions in the workforce due to loss of functional capacity,” write Spudich and Nath. “There is an urgent need to understand the pathophysiology of these disorders and develop disease-modifying therapies.”
As the pandemic continues, the neurological complications of COVID-19 are becoming more prominent. They can include confusion, stroke, neuromuscular disorders, depression, sensory disturbances and even psychosis, many of which persist months after infection. What’s more, some evidence suggests that COVID-19 infection may trigger future development of neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s or Parkinson’s. However, little is known about the physiopathology of these symptoms.
Spudich and Nath discuss the possible mechanisms that give rise to these neurological symptoms, which may include vascular and immune dysfunction like non-specific neuroinflammation and anti-neural autoimmune dysregulation, and possible viral infection in the central nervous system.
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