The new coronavirus may enter the brain through the nose

Science and Technology Daily (Reporter Zhang Mengran) According to a new study published in the British journal Nature Neuroscience on the 3rd, the new coronavirus may be able to enter the human brain through the nose. This finding may help explain some of the neurological symptoms observed in people infected with the new coronavirus and provide reference for the diagnosis and prevention of infection.
coronavirus not only affects the respiratory tract, but also the central nervous system, leading to neurological symptoms such as loss of smell, taste, headache, fatigue, nausea and so on. Although new research has found viral RNA in the brain and cerebrospinal fluid, it remains unclear how the virus enters and how it is distributed in the brain.
In view, Frank Heppner, a scientist at the Schalette University School of Medicine in Berlin, Germany, and colleagues studied the brains and nasopharynx (the upper part of the throat, connected to the nasal cavity) of 33 patients (22 men and 11 women) who died of neo-coronavirus infections, which may have been the first place the virus was infected and replicated. At the time of their death, the middle age was 71.6 years, with a mid-day interval of 31 days from the on-the-spot symptoms of neo-coronavirus infection to death.
team found RNA and proteins for the new coronavirus in the brain and nasopharyngeals, as well as complete virus particles in the nasopharyngeals. Among them, the olfactory mucosa found the highest level of viral RNA. They point out that there is a negative correlation between the course of the disease and the level of the virus detected, indicating that the shorter the course of the disease, the higher the RNA levels of the new coronavirus found in the body.
researchers also found new coronavirus tingling proteins in specific cell types of the olfactory mucosa, which use the endoder and adjacent nerve tissue to enter the brain. They found new coronavirus tingling proteins in the cells of some infected people expressing neuron markers -- indicating that olfactory neurons may be infected; New coronavirus have also been found in other areas of the nervous system, including myelin, the brain's main respiratory and cardiovascular control center.
researchers say new coronavirus infection studies with samples are still needed to determine the exact mechanism that mediated the virus's entry into the brain and to look for other possible paths of invasion.