Seeding Brain Protein Aggregation by SARS-CoV‑2 as a Possible Long-Term Complication of COVID-19 Infection

• Published in: ACS chemical neuroscience Vol. 11; no. 22; pp. 3704 - 3706
• Main Authors: Tavassoly, Omid, Safavi, Farinaz, Tavassoly, Iman
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States American Chemical Society 18-11-2020
• Subjects: Betacoronavirus - metabolism; Brain - metabolism; Brain - pathology; Brain - virology; Coronavirus Infections - complications; Coronavirus Infections - metabolism; Coronavirus Infections - pathology; COVID-19; Humans; Pandemics; Pneumonia, Viral - complications; Pneumonia, Viral - metabolism; Pneumonia, Viral - pathology; Protein Aggregates - physiology; SARS-CoV-2; Time Factors; COVID-19; neurodegeneration; Brain; SARS-CoV-2; functional amyloids; protein aggregation
• ISSN: 1948-7193; 1948-7193
• DOI: 10.1021/acschemneuro.0c00676

Postinfection complications of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) are still unknown, and one of the long-term concerns in infected people are brain pathologies. The question is that severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection may be an environmental factor in accelerating the sporadic neurodegeneration in the infected population. In this regard, induction of protein aggregation in the brain by SARS-CoV-2 intact structure or a peptide derived from spike protein subunits needs to be considered in futures studies. In this paper, we discuss these possibilities using pieces of evidence from other viruses.