Version 1
: Received: 17 April 2020 / Approved: 19 April 2020 / Online: 19 April 2020 (05:37:30 CEST)
How to cite:
Machado, C.; Gutierrez, J.V. Brainstem Dysfunction in SARS-COV2 Infection Can Be a Potential Cause of Respiratory Distress. Preprints2020, 2020040330. https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints202004.0330.v1
Machado, C.; Gutierrez, J.V. Brainstem Dysfunction in SARS-COV2 Infection Can Be a Potential Cause of Respiratory Distress. Preprints 2020, 2020040330. https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints202004.0330.v1
Machado, C.; Gutierrez, J.V. Brainstem Dysfunction in SARS-COV2 Infection Can Be a Potential Cause of Respiratory Distress. Preprints2020, 2020040330. https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints202004.0330.v1
APA Style
Machado, C., & Gutierrez, J.V. (2020). Brainstem Dysfunction in SARS-COV2 Infection Can Be a Potential Cause of Respiratory Distress. Preprints. https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints202004.0330.v1
Chicago/Turabian Style
Machado, C. and Joel Victor Gutierrez. 2020 "Brainstem Dysfunction in SARS-COV2 Infection Can Be a Potential Cause of Respiratory Distress" Preprints. https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints202004.0330.v1
Abstract
Covid-19 pandemic has captivated scientists to investigate if this new disease can affect the central nervous system (CNS). The most challenging symptoms of Covid-19 are related to respiratory distress, and most patients admitted in intensive care units cannot breathe by their own. Therefore, a crucial question is if respiratory distress can be partially explained by the CNS affection. SARS-Cov-2 is a beta-coronavirus that shares high similarities with SARS-CoV. The infection of SARS‐CoV has been reported in the brains from both patients and experimental animals, where the brainstem was heavily infected. Those coronaviruses have been able to invade the brainstem via a synapse‐connected route to the medullary respiratory center, where the infected regions included the nucleus of the solitary tract and nucleus ambiguous. The vagal afferent nerves from receptors in the lung communicate with the medulla and pons respiratory control centers to coordinate inspiration and expiration. This suggests that neuroinvasion of SARS‐CoV‐2 might play a role in the acute respiratory failure of Covid-19. Therefore, acute respiratory distress in Covid-19 can be partially explained by brainstem dysfunction, suggesting the needs of more specific and aggressive treatments with the direct participation of neurologists and neurointensivists.
Keywords
SARS-CoV-2 (CoV-2); COVID-19; coronavirus; pandemic; respiratory distress; brainstem; respiratory center
Subject
Medicine and Pharmacology, Neuroscience and Neurology
Copyright:
This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
