Sam Bazzi
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Neurological and Psychiatric Sequelae at 6-Months Post-COVID-19
Written by: Sam Bazzi Edited by: Esther Melamed Neurological and psychiatric symptoms have been established as a common symptom and sequelae of COVID-19, but our understanding of how long neurological and psychiatric problems persist after infection is limited. A recent report from Taquet et al., published in The Lancet, describes a retrospective cohort study that analyzed…
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A New Year of COVID
Written by: Sam Bazzi Edited by: Esther Melamed At any other time, celebrating the advent of January 1st is a ritual that allows us to reflect on the past 12 months, find hope for the upcoming year, and make resolutions to improve our lives. Unfortunately, SARS-CoV-2 did not get the memo about the new year…
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SARS-CoV-2 Enters the CNS via Olfactory Mucosa
Before the Thanksgiving holiday, I wrote a blog post about a study that described enhanced SARS-CoV-2 entry into cells that express the neuropilin-1 receptor (NRP1). The main takeaway from that piece was that while NRP1 is not sufficient for viral entry, it greatly enhances viral entry when coexpressed with ACE2 and TMPRSS2, the two proteins…
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Beyond ACE2 and TMPRSS2: Neuropilin-1 Receptors Enhance Cellular Entry of SARS-CoV-2
Angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2) and transmembrane protease serine 2 (TMPRSS2) have been established as the sites of entry for the SARS-CoV-2 virus into cells, but a new study published in Science demonstrates that another cell surface receptor, neuropilin-1 (NRP1), enhances the infectivity of the virus in vitro and in mice (Cantuti-Castelvetri et al., 2020). Of…
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Case Study of Child with Neurologic Symptoms Associated with COVID-19
It has been commonly thought that children infected with SARS-CoV-2 rarely develop severe symptoms compared to adults. Although there have been a number of cases of Kawasaki-like disease associated with SARS-CoV-2, multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children (MIS-C), it is rare for kids to develop neurological post-COVID complications as part of MIS-C. Recently, a case report…
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Case Study of 8 COVID-19 Patients with Anti-SARS-CoV-2 Antibodies in CSF and Blood-Brain Barrier Disruption
A case series report published in Neurology: Neuroimmunology & Neuroinflammation describes eight COVID-19 patients with encephalopathy prolonged comatose or stuporous states (Alexopoulos et al., 2020). These patients were enrolled in the study from the ICU of the University Hospital in Athens, Greece and showed “signs of encephalopathy, including altered mental status, confusion, delirium, stupor, or…
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COVID-19-Associated Acute Necrotizing Encephalopathy with Neuronal Autoantibodies
A case study published earlier this summer describes COVID-19-associated acute necrotising encephalopathy with the presence of IgG reactive to cerebral fibers. Writing in J Neurol Neurosurg Psychiatry, Dalamarre et al. describe the case of a 51-year-old man without family history of neurological disease (Delamarre et al., 2020). After 10 days of fever and cough, he…
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Comorbidity of Psychiatric Disorders in COVID-19
While many studies initially described mild and transient depressive or anxiety mood symptoms in people infected with or recovering from COVID-19, few studies have focused on patients with severe psychiatric symptoms. New evidence now suggests that in addition to mild mood changes, patients with COVID-19 may be indeed at higher risk for more severe psychiatric…