New Paper (Other): COVID-19 neuropathology at Columbia University Irving Medical Center/New York Presbyterian Hospital

[dziakj1]

Title: COVID-19 neuropathology at Columbia University Irving Medical Center/New York Presbyterian Hospital

General Information

Please paste a link to the paper or a citation here:

Link: https://academic.oup.com/brain/advance-article/doi/10.1093/brain/awab148/6226391

What is the paper's Manubot-style citation?

Citation: @doi:10.1093/brain/awab148

Is this paper primarily relevant to Background or Pathogenesis?

• [ ] Background
• [x] Pathogenesis
• [ ] Methods

Please list some keywords (3-10) that help identify the relevance of this paper to COVID-19

• brain
• lymphocytes
• hypoxia
• inflammation

Please note the publication / review status

• [ ] Pre-print
• [x] New Peer-Reviewed Paper
• [ ] Peer-Reviewed Paper Pre-2020

Which areas of expertise are particularly relevant to the paper?

• [ ] virology
• [ ] epidemiology
• [ ] biostatistics
• [x] immunology
• [ ] pharmacology
• [ ] other:

[dziakj1]

A brief popular summary of the paper is here: https://www.cidrap.umn.edu/news-perspective/2021/04/covid-19-damages-brain-without-infecting-it-study-suggests

[dziakj1]

It's also discussed at length here: https://www.microbe.tv/twiv/twiv-788/

[dziakj1]

The authors did brain autopsies of 41 patients, mean age 74, who died of COVID-19.
They wanted to know if it was possible for SARS-CoV-2 to infect the central nervous system, as some people had speculated. They did find viral RNA in some brains, but only in very small amounts, and it seemed probably to be in the "vasculature or blood components" and not in the brain tissue itself. No viral protein was found. There was lots of brain pathology (these people had died, after all), but it was likely not due to an actual infection in the brain, but it was likely due to "the effects of hypoxia, coagulopathy, and multiorgan damage in severe infection, accompanied by virus-mediated inflammatory processes, such as systemic cytokine release," and/or due to "the age range and comorbidities of our patients."

[dziakj1]

They conclude that "the neuropathological findings of COVID-19 are most likely related to the systemic infection and hypoxic/ischemic CNS damage, rather than direct viral invasion." In other words, the RNA got there through the blood vessels, maybe by hemorrhage.