The paper titled: The Effect of COVID-19 on NF-κB and Neurological Manifestations of Disease was published today in a special issue on COVID-19, in Molecular Neurobiology, and shows how therapeutics that reduce the NF-κB pathway should be considered in the treatment of COVID-19 and its effects on neurological function.
The work was led jointly by Dr. Aida Adlimoghaddam and Dr. Don A. Davies, post-doctoral fellows at the Synaptic Plasticity & Memory Dysfunction Lab, led by Dr. Benedict Albensi Principal Investigator, Division of Neurodegenerative Disorders at St. Boniface Hospital Research.
COVID-19 is a highly infectious disease caused by the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) which resulted in the pandemic, and initially, COVID-19 was thought to only affect respiration.
“While we are all familiar with the acute respiratory syndrome associated with COVID-19 infections as a result of living through this pandemic, accumulating evidence shows a wide range of neurological symptoms are also associated with the disease, such as anosmia/ageusia, headaches, seizures, demyelination, mental confusion, delirium, and coma,” said Albensi. “Neuro-COVID-19 is increasingly becoming an accepted term among scientists and clinicians, with teams being created to implement strategies for treating the wide range of neurological symptoms observed in COVID-19 patients,” he added. This includes examining symptoms arising due to cytokine storm reaction and heightened states of inflammation in the brain.
The paper focuses on the nuclear factor kappa-light-chain enhancer of activated B cells (NF-κB) as a central pathway involved with inflammation and showing it to be elevated in a dose-dependent matter in response to coronaviruses. This suggests that NF-κB has a role in cytokine storm syndrome, which is associated with greater severity in COVID-19 related symptoms.
To access the paper, link here https://rdcu.be/clNN4