SynthesisEuropean journal of neurology2021
Neuropathological findings from COVID-19 patients with neurological symptoms argue against a direct brain invasion of SARS-CoV-2: A critical systematic review.
Synthesis in European journal of neurology, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 65 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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Who cites it
65 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 101 citations in OpenAlex.
- Neuropathological findings from COVID-19 patients with neurological symptoms argue against a direct brain invasion of SARS-CoV-2: A critical systematic review.European journal of neurology · 2021Pooled it
- Lithium Aspartate for Long COVID Fatigue and Cognitive Dysfunction: A Randomized Clinical Trial.JAMA network open · 2024Trial
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- Neuroimmune activation in temporal lobe epilepsy patients with worsening seizure following the COVID-19 pandemic: A [Science advances · 2026Article
- Article
- Influenza A infection accelerates disease-associated microglia formation during physiological aging.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2025Article
- Human coronavirus OC43 infection in human cerebral organoids: novel insights on pathogenesis and potential therapeutic interventions.Journal of biomedical science · 2025Article
- Article
- SARS-CoV-2 infection of human cortical cells is influenced by the interaction between aneuploidy and biological sex: insights from a Down syndrome in vitro model.Acta neuropathologica · 2025Article
- Microglia dysfunction, neurovascular inflammation and focal neuropathologies are linked to IL-1- and IL-6-related systemic inflammation in COVID-19.Nature neuroscience · 2025Article
- Innate immune sensors and regulators at the blood brain barrier: focus on toll-like receptors and inflammasomes as mediators of neuro-immune crosstalk and inflammation.Journal of neuroinflammation · 2025Review
- Neuropsychiatric Manifestations of COVID-19 Disease and Post COVID Syndrome: The Role of N-acetylcysteine and Acetyl-L-carnitine.Current neuropharmacology · 2025Review
- Impact of SARS-CoV-2 Infection on Essential Tremor: A Retrospective Clinical and Kinematic Analysis.Cerebellum (London, England) · 2024Article
- Cardiovascular and kidney diseases are positively associated with neuroinflammation and reduced brain-derived neurotrophic factor in patients with severe COVID-19.Brain, behavior, & immunity - health · 2024Article
- Objective and subjective cognitive outcomes one year after COVID-19.Annals of clinical and translational neurology · 2024Article
- Medium- and Long-Term Effects of COVID-19 in a Population of Patients Admitted to the Intensive Care Unit: Cognitive and Psychological Sequelae and Quality of Life Six Months and One Year after Discharge.Healthcare (Basel, Switzerland) · 2024Article
- Clinical features of COVID-19-related encephalitis: comparison with the features of herpes virus encephalitis and autoimmune encephalitis.Neurological sciences : official journal of the Italian Neurological Society and of the Italian Society of Clinical Neurophysiology · 2024Article
- Long COVID in Brain Health Research: A Call to Action.Brain sciences · 2024Review
- Vertebral artery wall inflammation suspected as the cause of cryptogenic ischemic stroke developing during the recovery period of COVID-19.The neuroradiology journal · 2024Article
- Prolonged exposure to lung-derived cytokines is associated with activation of microglia in patients with COVID-19.JCI insight · 2024Article
5 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
7 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
background and purposeNeuropathological studies can elucidate the mechanisms of nervous system damage associated with SARS-CoV-2 infection. Despite literature on this topic is rapidly expanding, correlations between neurological symptoms and brain pathology findings in COVID-19 patients remain largely unknown.
methodsWe performed a systematic literature review on neuropathological studies in COVID-19, including 438 patients from 45 articles published by April 22, 2021. We retrieved quantitative data regarding demographic, clinical, and neuropathological findings. We carried out a Wilcoxon rank sum test or χ
resultsNeuropathological findings in COVID-19 patients were microgliosis (52.5%), astrogliosis (45.6%), inflammatory infiltrates (44.0%), hypoxic-ischemic lesions (40.8%), edema (25.3%), and hemorrhagic lesions (20.5%). SARS-CoV-2 RNA and proteins were identified in brain specimens of 41.9% and 28.3% of subjects, respectively. Detailed clinical information was available from 245 patients (55.9%), and among them, 96 subjects (39.2%) had presented with neurological symptoms in association with typical COVID-19 manifestations. We found that: (i) the detection rate of SARS-CoV-2 RNA and proteins in brain specimens did not differ between patients with versus those without neurological symptoms; (ii) brain edema, hypoxic-ischemic lesions, and inflammatory infiltrates were more frequent in subjects with neurological impairment; (iii) neurological symptoms were more common among older individuals.
conclusionsOur systematic revision of clinical correlates in COVID-19 highlights the pathogenic relevance of brain inflammatory reaction and hypoxic-ischemic damage rather than neuronal viral load. This analysis indicates that a more focused study design is needed, especially in the perspective of potential therapeutic trials.
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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.