"Covid-19 Effects on the Brain" Article Encounter

 This past week my boyfriend and I went to Georgetown to get some work done. As we were taking a short break, we began browsing through the internet when we ran into an article from a website called TheScientist that read "Covid-19's Effects on the Brain". The article spoke about how doctors observed neurological symptoms that came along with previous epidemics and pandemics, such as the influenza pandemic and the flu pandemic. The article continued by mentioning that the number of patients who had developed the neurological symptoms associated with Covid-19, such as impaired consciousness, seizures, sensory impairments, etc, was completely mind-blowing. Patricia McNamara, a neurologist at the National Hosptial for Neurology and Neurosurgery, mentions that she separates the neurological symptoms into two groups; the first group consists of drastic symptoms that were appearing to affect patients with severe diseases, such as strokes, peripheral nerve damage, brain inflammation, etc. Whereas the second group consists of long-term but lighter symptoms, such as fatigue, tingling sensations, ranging headaches, etc. It was reported although the patients were showing improvements, it was at a very slow rate. It was mentioned that autopsies had reported traces of SARS-CoV-2 in some patients' brains, but researchers have yet to discover how this virus has found a way to directly infects the brain. This article reminded me of another closely related article, from the same website, that we had previously read; it was about how researchers found that the SARS-CoV-2 virus may be shuttling itself through tunneling nanotubes, but it remains uncertain whether this same mechanism, of tunneling nanotubes transporting SARS-CoV-2 works the same way in a human brain. This encounter with the article "Covid-19's Effects on the Brain" as well as the previously read article, "SARS-CoV-2 Could Use Nanotubes to Infect the Brain", both closely relate to the Cell & Molecular Biology course given that this infectious virus has found a way to infect neurons, despite neurons lacking the ACE2 protein, which is the protein SARS-CoV-2 usually binds to in order to infect cells. 

Article: 

Covid-19's effects on the brain. The Scientist Magazine®. (2021, January 20). Retrieved January 27, 2023, from https://www.the-scientist.com/news-opinion/covid-19s-effects-on-the-brain-68369

SARS-COV-2 could use nanotubes to infect the brain. The Scientist Magazine®. (2022, July 21). Retrieved January 27, 2023, from https://www.the-scientist.com/news-opinion/sars-cov-2-could-use-nanotubes-to-infect-the-brain-70258