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COVID-19 Beyond the Lungs: How SARS-Cov2 Invades the Human Nervous System

COVID-19 Beyond the Lungs: How SARS-Cov2 Invades the Human Nervous System

Omar El Hiba (FSJ, University Chouaib Doukkali, Morocco & Moroccan Society for Ethics and Animal Research (MoSEAR), Morocco), Hicham Chatoui (Faculty of Sciences and Techniques (FST), University Sultan Moulay Slimane, Morocco & Private University of Marrakech, Morocco), Nadia Zouhairi (FSJ, University Chouaib Doukkali, Morocco), Lahoucine Bahi (Faculty of Sciences and Techniques (FST), University Sultan My Slimane, Morocco), Lhoussaine Ammouta (Faculty of Sciences and Techniques (FST), University Sultan My Slimane, Morocco), Tiziano Balzano (Centre for Integrative Neuroscience A.C., University Hospital HM Puerta del Sur, Spain), Moulay Abdelmonaim El Hidan (Faculty of Applied Sciences, Ibn Zohr University, Morocco), Faical Isbaine (Emory University, USA), Arumugam R. Jayakumar (University of Miami School of Medicine, USA & South Florida VA Foundation for Research and Education, USA), Michael D. Norenberg (Departments of Pathology, Biochemistry, and Molecular Biology, University of Miami, USA), Amira Zaky (Faculty of Sciences, Alexandria University, Alexandria, Egypt), and Halima Gamrani (Faculty of Sciences, Cadi Ayyad University, Morocco)
Copyright: © 2022 |Pages: 18
DOI: 10.4018/978-1-7998-8225-1.ch007
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Abstract

Since December 2019, the world has been shaken by the spread of a highly pathogen virus, causing severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS-Cov2), which emerged in Wuhan, China. SARS-Cov2 is known to cause acute pneumonia: the cardinal feature of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). Clinical features of the disease include respiratory distress, loss of spontaneous breathing, and sometimes neurologic signs such as headache and nausea and anosmia, leading to suppose a possible involvement of the nervous system as a potential target of SARS-CoV2. The chapter will shed light on the recent clinical and experimental data sustaining the involvement of the nervous system in the pathophysiology of COVID-19, based on several case reports and experimental data reporting the possible transmission of SARS-CoV2 throughout the peripheral nerves to the brain cardiorespiratory centers. Thus, understanding the role of the nervous system in the course of clinical symptoms of COVID-19 is important in determining the appropriate therapeutic approach to combat the disease.
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History Of The Pandemic

Since December 2019, the Chinese government had declared an uncontrolled mysterious outbreak of pneumonia in Wuhan city. First reports have suspected the emergence from Huanan; a wholesale market for aquatic and live animals sale (Li et al., 2020). Preliminary studies in patients with the respiratory disease revealed the presence of non-identified betacoronavirus sampled from lower respiratory tract. Otherwise, the virus was isolated from the human airway epithelial cells and was then named as 2019–novel Coronavirus (2019–nCoV) (Zhu et al., 2020). Later, electron microscopy observations showed that the virus structure allows it to be classified as a member of the Coronoviridae family. Surprisingly genetic studies showed 88% sequence similarity with 2 derived strains of coronavirus found in bats (RaTG13), while it appears to be more distant from humans SARS (79% similarity) and MERS (50% similarity).(Lu et al., 2020). On February 11, 2020, the Coronavirus Study Group of the International Committee on Taxonomy of Viruses attributed the name of SARS–CoV2 (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome-CoV2) to the newly discovered virus (Gorbalenya et al., 2020). Accordingly, the World Health Organization (WHO) attributed the term COVID-19 to the associated disease (WHO, 2020).

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