Title

Towards Neuro-CoViD-19

Authors

Francesco Chiappelli

Affiliation

UCLA Center for the Health Sciences, Los Angeles, California, USA,

Email

Francesco Chiappelli, - E-mail: Chiappelli.research@gmail.com

Article Type

Research Article

Date

Received March 17, 2019; Accepted March 18, 2020; Published April 30, 2020

CoViD-19 is the current pandemic caused by the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Corona Virus-2 (SARS-CoV-2). Infection by SARSCoV-2 occurs via the binding of its S protein to the angiotensin-converting enzyme-2 receptor (ACE2-R). S binding to ACE2-R leads to a drop in ACE2, a homolog of angiotensin converting enzyme (ACE). In the central nervous system (CNS), ACE mediates neuroinflammation, neurodegeneration and neurotoxicity responsible for several CNS disorders. ACE2 counteracts the damaging effects of ACE on CNS neurons. SARS-CoV-2 can directly access the CNS via the circulation or via cranial nerve I and the olfactory bulb. Inactivation of ACE2 following binding of SARS-CoV-2 S protein to ACE2-R in situ might blunt ACE2-moderating effects upon ACE CNS neurotoxicity and neurodegeneration. Here, we propose a neurobiological mechanism directly involving SARS-CoV-2 binding to ACE2-R in the etiology of putative Neuro-CoViD-19.

Keywords

Angiotensin-converting enzyme-2 receptor (ACE2-R); Central Nervous System (CNS); Corona Virus Disease 2019 (CoViD-19); Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Corona Virus-2 (SARS-CoV-2); transmembrane protease serine-2 (TMPRSS2)

Citation

Chiappelli, 16(4): 288-292 (2020)

Edited by

P Kangueane

ISSN

0973-2063

Publisher

Biomedical Informatics

License

This is an Open Access article which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly credited. This is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License.