COVID-19 Attacks on Brain Remain a Mystery.

• Position: SARS-CoV-2

In an in-depth study of how COVID-19 affects a patient's brain, National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke researchers consistently spotted hallmarks of damage caused by thinning and leaky blood vessels in tissue samples from patients who died shortly after contracting the disease. In addition, they saw no signs of SARS-CoV-2 in the samples, suggesting the damage was not caused by a direct viral attack on the brain.

"We found that the brains of patients who contract infection from SARS-CoV-2 may be susceptible to microvascular blood vessel damage. Our results suggest that this may be caused by the body's inflammatory response to the virus" says senior author Avindra Nath, clinical director at NINDS. "We hope these results will help doctors understand the full spectrum of problems patients may suffer so that we can come up with better treatments."

Although COVID-19 primarily is a respiratory disease, patients often experience neurological problems, including headaches, delirium, cognitive dysfunction, dizziness, fatigue, and loss of the sense of smell. The disease also may cause patients to suffer strokes and other neuropathologies.

Several studies have shown that COVID can cause inflammation and bfood vessel damage. In one of these studies, the researchers found evidence of small amounts of SARS-CoV-2 in some patients' brains. Nevertheless, scientists still are trying to understand how the disease affects the brain.

In this study, the researchers conducted an in-depth examination of brain tissue samples from 19 patients who had died after experiencing COVID-19 between March and...