SARS-CoV-2 may seem a grim menace now owing to the development of vaccines, it still can infect you severely. The deadly virus can directly infect your central nervous system and can make you paralyzed. Every action or function of your body is controlled by your brain and any damage to its cells can result in a dysfunctional body.
According to a recent research published in the Journal of Experimental Medicine, COVID-19 causing virus invades your brain cells and uses them for its replication. It does so by using the neuronal cell machinery and by enhancing the rate of metabolism of infected cells. This results in a lack of oxygen supply to the uninfected cells and that’s why they further die.
These findings were revealed after conducting a study on human brain organoids, which is a simplified version of the brain grown in a lab. The scientists later analyzed the brains of three COVID-19 patients who died due to the infection. They found that one of them had the virus in his cortical neurons. And, the patients had experienced ischemia, a type of stroke that is caused due to blockage in an artery that supplies blood to your brain.
Researchers further revealed that SARS-CoV-2 enters lung cells by binding to a protein called ACE2, but whether this protein is present on the surface of brain cells is unclear. The study team determined that the ACE2 protein is, in fact, produced by neurons and that blocking this protein prevents the virus from human brain organoids.
As per the scientists, COVID-19 infection in your central nervous system infection is much more lethal than infections limited to the lungs.
With Inputs From IANS