COVID-19 Neurology

As the USA confronts both COVID-19 and issues regarding race, I think it is important to highlight one big way that these issues intersect: disparities in health outcomes during this pandemic. There are many social barriers, as well as lack of scientific knowledge, that have led to African Americans having generally worse health outcomes (Mays,…

Since starting this blog, a lot of the literature I’ve written about has been circling around the idea that SARS-CoV-2 may infect the brain. We’ve seen neurological symptoms in patients and in vitro assays showing viral invasion of human iPSC-derived neurons, but this week I found a paper published back in May that revealed SARS-CoV-2…

It’s been a long week of processing COVID-19 patient blood. After handling vial after vial of blood in a very controlled laboratory environment, it’s easy to forget the unpredictable nature of this virus’s presentation in clinical settings, so I’m excited to be able to sit down at the end of the week and learn more…

July 28, 2020 by Sam Bazzi Since our lab has begun studies on COVID-19 during the past month, I must apologize to my readers for not posting as frequently. It’s been very exciting to finally get back in the lab regularly, but I only wish that it was under more pleasant circumstances (and without N95…

July 13, 2020 by Sam Bazzi A study published recently in ALTEX demonstrates that the SARS-CoV-2 virus can invade neurons expressing the ACE2 receptor using a BrainSphere in vitro model. BrainSpheres are essentially tiny models of the brain that are produced from human inducible pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs). These cells can differentiate into neurons, astrocytes,…

June 23, 2020 by Sam Bazzi Another week, another study on horrifying brain injuries associated with COVID-19… Let’s get started. Although I’ve mentioned reports of stroke in previous reviews of neurological symptoms in COVID, I have not yet covered the published case reports describing ischemia. A case study came out in the New England Journal…

June 15, 2020 by Sam Bazzi Adding to the macabre menagerie of potential complications from COVID-19, a new report published in Neurology: Neuroimmunology & Neuroinflammation describes acute necrotizing myelitis (ANM) associated with SARS-CoV-2 infection. A 69-year-old female patient from Spain presented to clinic with complaints of cervical pain, imbalance, and motor weakness/numbness in her left…

June 8, 2020 by Sam Bazzi Early studies on COVID-19 from China first revealed that SARS-CoV-2 infection can lead to anosmia (lack of smell) and ageusia (lack of taste). These early studies reported that these symptoms were uncommon, listing the prevalence at 5% of COVID-19 cases (Mao et al., 2020). However, more recent studies from…