SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, may preferentially use a "back door" into cells to infect the brain, a new mouse study suggests.
The finding could partly explain why many people have neurological symptoms such as fatigue, dizziness, brain fog, or loss of smell or taste during or after a bout with the virus. Scientists think these symptoms may arise when SARS-CoV-2 enters the central nervous system, but how and why the virus moves from the respiratory tract to the brain wasn't clear until now.
In an article published Aug. 23 in the journal Nature Microbiology, researchers discovered mutations in the virus's spike protein, which it uses to enter human cells by binding to a molecule called ACE2 on the cells' surface....<<<Read More>>>...