Potential Prion Involvement in Long COVID-19 Neuropathology, Including Behavior.
George B StefanoPascal BüttikerSimon WeissenbergerMartin AndersJiri RabochRadek PtacekRichard M KreamPublished in: Cellular and molecular neurobiology (2023)
Prion' is a term used to describe a protein infectious particle responsible for several neurodegenerative diseases in mammals, e.g., Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease. The novelty is that it is protein based infectious agent not involving a nucleic acid genome as found in viruses and bacteria. Prion disorders exhibit, in part, incubation periods, neuronal loss, and induce abnormal folding of specific normal cellular proteins due to enhancing reactive oxygen species associated with mitochondria energy metabolism. These agents may also induce memory, personality and movement abnormalities as well as depression, confusion and disorientation. Interestingly, some of these behavioral changes also occur in COVID-19 and mechanistically include mitochondrial damage caused by SARS-CoV-2 and subsequenct production of reactive oxygen species. Taken together, we surmise, in part, long COVID may involve the induction of spontaneous prion emergence, especially in individuals susceptible to its origin may thus explain some of its manesfestions post-acute viral infection.
Keyphrases
- sars cov
- reactive oxygen species
- coronavirus disease
- nucleic acid
- respiratory syndrome coronavirus
- oxidative stress
- protein protein
- liver failure
- depressive symptoms
- preterm infants
- working memory
- cell death
- drug induced
- intensive care unit
- risk assessment
- molecular dynamics simulations
- single molecule
- climate change
- binding protein
- small molecule
- human health
- gene expression
- sleep quality
- aortic dissection
- blood brain barrier
- hepatitis b virus
- genome wide
- extracorporeal membrane oxygenation
- endoplasmic reticulum
- mechanical ventilation