CHICAGO — At least one-third of people who have had COVID-19 experience neurological complications, according to the chief of Neuroinfectious Diseases and Global Neurology at Northwestern Medicine, and Axios reports that scientists have established two possible mechanisms behind the phenomenon.
A study in science journal Nature found that SARS-CoV-2 has the ability to cross the blood-brain barrier which usually tightly regulates the movement of molecules, ions and cells between the blood and the central nervous system, resulting in degradation.
A U.S. National Center for Biotechnology Information study, meanwhile, found that brain-barrier cells of the choroid plexus can become inflamed, relay inflammation onto glial cells and cause damage to neurons.
Without indicating which of these mechanisms was responsible, a separate study in Nature found even people with mild COVID-19 infections showed evidence of cognitive decline, degeneration in parts of the brain and brain shrinkage.
