New research has concluded that the coronavirus may infect neural cells and, therefore, cause brain damage in more serious forms of the disease. The study — carried out by the Oswaldo Cruz Foundation, the D’Or Institute, and the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ) — examined brain tissue from a patient who died due to Covid-19.
“What we understood is that virus replication inside neural cells is abortive: once inside, there is no more replication, which means no local infection. However, this is not enough to avoid lesions. The simple presence of the virus in the nervous tissue is harmful to the brain cells,” said virologist Thiago Moreno Souza.
The study corroborates the findings of another Brazilian research paper that found 45.5 percent of severe Covid-19 patients developed cerebral complications. Scientists around the world are grappling to understand the effects of Covid-19 on the nervous system, after reports of patients who have had strokes or developed psychosis after falling ill with Covid-19, reports scientific magazine Nature.
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