ReviewJournal of Alzheimer's disease reports2020
The Vagal Autonomic Pathway of COVID-19 at the Crossroad of Alzheimer's Disease and Aging: A Review of Knowledge.
Review in Journal of Alzheimer's disease reports, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 26 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
26 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 42 citations in OpenAlex.
- Heterogeneity in Regional Damage Detected by Neuroimaging and Neuropathological Studies in Older Adults With COVID-19: A Cognitive-Neuroscience Systematic Review to Inform the Long-Term Impact of the Virus on Neurocognitive Trajectories.Frontiers in aging neuroscience · 2021Pooled it
- Integrative perspectives on electroacupuncture modulation of vagal-cholinergic and neuro-immune-metabolic regulation in long COVID.Frontiers in integrative neuroscience · 2026Review
- Neurological, psychological, psychosocial complications of long-COVID and their management.Neurological sciences : official journal of the Italian Neurological Society and of the Italian Society of Clinical Neurophysiology · 2025Review
- Comparative cohort study of post-acute COVID-19 infection with a nested, randomized controlled trial of ivabradine for those with postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome (the COVIVA study).Frontiers in neurology · 2025Article
- Extracellular Vesicles: The Invisible Heroes and Villains of COVID-19 Central Neuropathology.Advanced science (Weinheim, Baden-Wurttemberg, Germany) · 2024Review
- Brain Pathology in COVID-19: Clinical Manifestations and Potential Mechanisms.Neuroscience bulletin · 2024Review
- Transcutaneous vagus nerve stimulation: a new strategy for Alzheimer's disease intervention through the brain-gut-microbiota axis?Frontiers in aging neuroscience · 2024Review
- Assessment and Therapeutic Modulation of Heart Rate Variability: Potential Implications in Patients with COVID-19.Journal of cardiovascular development and disease · 2023Review
- Erythrocytes Functionality in SARS-CoV-2 Infection: Potential Link with Alzheimer's Disease.International journal of molecular sciences · 2023Review
- Association of Heart Rate Variability with Pulmonary Function Impairment and Symptomatology Post-COVID-19 Hospitalization.Sensors (Basel, Switzerland) · 2023Article
- Auricular vagus nerve stimulation: a new option to treat inflammation in COVID-19?Revista da Associacao Medica Brasileira (1992) · 2023Article
- Neuro-Immune Interactions in Severe COVID-19 Infection.Pathogens (Basel, Switzerland) · 2022Review
- COVID-19 and cognitive impairment: neuroinvasive and blood‒brain barrier dysfunction.Journal of neuroinflammation · 2022Review
- Comparison of the autonomic nervous system dysfunction between different chronic spine disorders: neck pain versus low back pain.Revista da Associacao Medica Brasileira (1992) · 2022Article
- Post-COVID-19 Parkinsonism and Parkinson's Disease Pathogenesis: The Exosomal Cargo Hypothesis.International journal of molecular sciences · 2022Review
- Understanding the Pivotal Role of the Vagus Nerve in Health from Pandemics.Bioengineering (Basel, Switzerland) · 2022Article
- Neurological consequences of COVID-19 and brain related pathogenic mechanisms: A new challenge for neuroscience.Brain, behavior, & immunity - health · 2022Review
- SARS-CoV-2 entry sites are present in all structural elements of the human glossopharyngeal and vagal nerves: clinical implications.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2022Article
- Spotlight on non-motor symptoms and Covid-19.International review of neurobiology · 2022Article
- Dysautonomia in COVID-19 Patients: A Narrative Review on Clinical Course, Diagnostic and Therapeutic Strategies.Frontiers in neurology · 2022Review
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
4 authors at 4 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic-triggered mortality is significantly higher in older than in younger populations worldwide. Alzheimer's disease (AD) is related to aging and was recently reported to be among the major risk factors for COVID-19 mortality in older people. The symptomatology of COVID-19 indicates that lethal outcomes of infection rely on neurogenic mechanisms. The present review compiles the available knowledge pointing to the convergence of COVID-19 complications with the mechanisms of autonomic dysfunctions in AD and aging. The severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) is prone to neuroinvasion from the lung along the vagus nerve up to the brainstem autonomic nervous centers involved in the coupling of cardiovascular and respiratory rhythms. The brainstem autonomic network allows SARS-CoV-2 to trigger a neurogenic switch to hypertension and hypoventilation, which may act in synergy with aging- and AD-induced dysautonomias, along with an inflammatory "storm". The lethal outcomes of COVID-19, like in AD and unhealthy aging, likely rely on a critical hypoactivity of the efferent vagus nerve cholinergic pathway, which is involved in lowering cardiovascular pressure and systemic inflammation tone. We further discuss the emerging evidence supporting the use of 1) the non-invasive stimulation of vagus nerve as an additional therapeutic approach for severe COVID-19, and 2) the demonstrated vagal tone index, i.e., heart rate variability, via smartphone-based applications as a non-serological low-cost diagnostic of COVID-19. These two well-known medical approaches are already available and now deserve large-scale testing on human cohorts in the context of both AD and COVID-19.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.