COVID 19 and The Brain

Very recently severe acute respiratory syndrome CoV 2 (SARS-CoV-2) that caused coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has been detected in the neural and capillary endothelial cells of the frontal lobe in postmortem tissue of a patient. Besides, the association of neurological symptoms such as confusion, impaired consciousness, headache, meningitis, acute stroke, encephalitis, hemorrhage, seizure and early symptoms of Guillian-Barre like symptoms in the SARS-CoV-2 patients has raised great concern about the potential impact of the neuroinvasion of SARS-CoV-2. However, the exact pathomechanism of the SARS-CoV-2 infection is not completely understood. Lack of study on the SARS-CoV-2 mediated infection of the central nervous system (CNS) makes it difficult to evaluate how SARS-CoV-2 invades the nervous system and causes neuronal damage and cognitive impairment. Here, we discuss the neurological manifestations of COVID 19, the pathomechanism, and possible route of invasion of SARS-CoV-2 in the CNS. We also emphasize the importance of better understandings of neuroinvasion of SARS-CoV-2 to develop better therapeutic approaches to treat COVID 19 related neurological complications.