Abstract
Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), caused by the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) continues to impact our lives by causing widespread illness and death and poses a threat due to the possibility of emerging strains. SARS-CoV-2 targets angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2) before entering vital organs of the body, including the brain. Studies have shown systemic inflammation, cellular senescence, and viral toxicity-mediated multi-organ failure occur during infectious periods. However, prognostic investigations suggest that both acute and long-term neurological complications, including predisposition to irreversible neurodegenerative diseases, can be a serious concern for COVID-19 survivors, especially the elderly population. As emerging studies reveal sites of SARS-CoV-2 infection in different parts of the brain, potential causes of chronic lesions including cerebral and deep-brain microbleeds and the likelihood of developing stroke-like pathologies increases, with critical long-term consequences, particularly for individuals with neuropathological and/or age-associated comorbid conditions. Our recent studies linking the blood degradation products to genome instability, leading to cellular senescence and ferroptosis, raise the possibility of similar neurovascular events as a result of SARS-CoV-2 infection. In this review, we discuss the neuropathological consequences of SARS-CoV-2 infection in COVID survivors, focusing on possible hemorrhagic damage in brain cells, its association to aging, and the future directions in developing mechanism-guided therapeutic strategies.
Original language | English (US) |
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Article number | 101687 |
Journal | Ageing Research Reviews |
Volume | 80 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - Sep 2022 |
Keywords
- Brain fog
- COVID-19
- Coronavirus
- Ferroptosis
- Genome instability
- Hemorrhage
- SARS-CoV-2
- Senescence
- COVID-19/complications
- Humans
- Nervous System Diseases/pathology
- Aged
- Brain/metabolism
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Neurology
- Aging
- Molecular Biology
- Biochemistry
- Biotechnology