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Review
. 2020 Jul;33(4):e13591.
doi: 10.1111/dth.13591. Epub 2020 May 26.

Novel coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) and neurodegenerative disorders

Anurag Kumar Singh  1 , Bharat Bhushan  2 , Anand Maurya  3 , Gaurav Mishra  3 , Santosh Kumar Singh  1 , Rajendra Awasthi  4
Affiliations
Review

Novel coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) and neurodegenerative disorders

Anurag Kumar Singh et al. Dermatol Ther. 2020 Jul.

Abstract

During the last few months, the whole humanity is experiencing largest and most severe sudden influx of COVID-19 outbreak caused by the novel coronavirus (CoV) originated from Wuhan, China. According to the WHO reports, total 3 862 676 positive cases and 265 961 deaths have been recorded worldwide due to COVID-19 infection as of May 9, 2020. CoVs are a large family of viruses (enveloped, single-stranded RNA viruses), which includes severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus (SARS-CoV) and Middle East respiratory syndrome-related coronavirus (MERS-CoV). New SARS CoV2 is the members of Betacoronavirus genus. These viruses cause infections in bats, camels and humans, and a few other associated species. Despite many neurologic complications associated with SARS-CoV-2 infection, it is still unclear whether these symptoms results from direct neural injury or due to some other reason. Currently, it appears that most of the neurological symptoms of COVID-19 are nonspecific and secondary to the systemic illness. A single case of acute hemorrhagic necrotizing encephalopathy has been reported. SARS-CoV-2 associated Guillain-Barré syndrome is an atypical case. Till today, no convincing evidence is available to confirm that the SARS-CoV-2 virus directly affects nerves system in humans. However, postinfection surveillance will be necessary to identify the possible post-COVID-19 neurologic syndromes.

Keywords: COVID-19; coronavirus; neurodegenerative disorders; viral outbreak.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no potential conflict of interest.

Figures

FIGURE 1
FIGURE 1
The mechanisms of COVID‐19 infections and neurological damage caused by COVID‐19
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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