ArticleJournal of neuroimmune pharmacology : the official journal of the Society on NeuroImmune Pharmacology2021
Mitochondrial Dynamics in SARS-COV2 Spike Protein Treated Human Microglia: Implications for Neuro-COVID.
Article in Journal of neuroimmune pharmacology : the official journal of the Society on NeuroImmune Pharmacology, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. An erratum has been issued. Cited by 48 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
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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
48 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 81 citations in OpenAlex.
- Gender Disparities in Neurological Symptoms of Long COVID: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.Neuroepidemiology · 2025Pooled it
- Intervention modalities for brain fog caused by long-COVID: systematic review of the literature.Neurological sciences : official journal of the Italian Neurological Society and of the Italian Society of Clinical Neurophysiology · 2024Pooled it
- Transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation for fibromyalgia-like syndrome in patients with Long-COVID: a pilot randomized clinical trial.Scientific reports · 2024Trial
- SARS-CoV-2 Spike Protein S1 Subunit Induces Neuroinflammation Via Microglial Kv1.3 Channel.Biological psychiatry global open science · 2026Article
- Effects of Exogenous SARS-CoV-2 S1 Protein and mRNA Vaccines on Mixed Neuronal-Glial Cell Cultures.Medicina (Kaunas, Lithuania) · 2026Article
- Roles of Reactive Oxygen Species in Relationships Between Viral Infections and Alzheimer's Disease and Related Dementia.Antioxidants (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Review
- Protective Effects of Safranal Against Spike Protein-Induced Mitochondrial Dysfunction and Inflammation in Peripheral and Central Immune Cells.Current developments in nutrition · 2026Article
- SARS-CoV-2-induced damage to rat cortical neuronal networks ex vivo is mediated by the pro-inflammatory activation of the cGAS-STING pathway.Journal of neurovirology · 2025Article
- Mitochondrial bioenergetics dysfunction in T2DM: linking oxidative stress to insulin resistance.Frontiers in endocrinology · 2025Review
- Viral reprogramming of glial metabolism as a driver of neuroinflammation.Frontiers in immunology · 2025Review
- The Role of SARS-CoV-2 Spike Protein in Long-term Damage of Tissues and Organs, the Underestimated Role of Retrotransposons and Stem Cells, a Working Hypothesis.Endocrine, metabolic & immune disorders drug targets · 2025Review
- Sex differences in mitochondrial gene expression during viral myocarditis.Biology of sex differences · 2024Article
- Brain Fog: a Narrative Review of the Most Common Mysterious Cognitive Disorder in COVID-19.Molecular neurobiology · 2024Review
- CMTM7 shapes the chronic inflammatory and immunosuppressive tumor microenvironment in hepatocellular carcinoma as an M2 macrophage biomarker.Scientific reports · 2024Article
- Article
- IL-8 (CXCL8) Correlations with Psychoneuroimmunological Processes and Neuropsychiatric Conditions.Journal of personalized medicine · 2024Review
- Precision nutrition to reset virus-induced human metabolic reprogramming and dysregulation (HMRD) in long-COVID.NPJ science of food · 2024Review
- Extracellular Vesicles: The Invisible Heroes and Villains of COVID-19 Central Neuropathology.Advanced science (Weinheim, Baden-Wurttemberg, Germany) · 2024Review
- Overlapping conditions in Long COVID at a multisite academic center.Frontiers in neurology · 2024Article
- Neurovascular coupling impairment as a mechanism for cognitive deficits in COVID-19.Brain communications · 2024Review
Corrections and comments
- Erratum issued
Authors and funding
9 authors at 3 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
Emerging clinical data from the current COVID-19 pandemic suggests that ~ 40% of COVID-19 patients develop neurological symptoms attributed to viral encephalitis while in COVID long haulers chronic neuro-inflammation and neuronal damage result in a syndrome described as Neuro-COVID. We hypothesize that SAR-COV2 induces mitochondrial dysfunction and activation of the mitochondrial-dependent intrinsic apoptotic pathway, resulting in microglial and neuronal apoptosis. The goal of our study was to determine the effect of SARS-COV2 on mitochondrial biogenesis and to monitor cell apoptosis in human microglia non-invasively in real time using Raman spectroscopy, providing a unique spatio-temporal information on mitochondrial function in live cells. We treated human microglia with SARS-COV2 spike protein and examined the levels of cytokines and reactive oxygen species (ROS) production, determined the effect of SARS-COV2 on mitochondrial biogenesis and examined the changes in molecular composition of phospholipids. Our results show that SARS- COV2 spike protein increases the levels of pro-inflammatory cytokines and ROS production, increases apoptosis and increases the oxygen consumption rate (OCR) in microglial cells. Increases in OCR are indicative of increased ROS production and oxidative stress suggesting that SARS-COV2 induced cell death. Raman spectroscopy yielded significant differences in phospholipids such as Phosphatidylinositol (PI), phosphatidylserine (PS), phosphatidylethanolamine (PE) and phosphatidylcholine (PC), which account for ~ 80% of mitochondrial membrane lipids between SARS-COV2 treated and untreated microglial cells. These data provide important mechanistic insights into SARS-COV2 induced mitochondrial dysfunction which underlies neuropathology associated with Neuro-COVID.
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What OpenQuestion holds
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.