Coronavirus May Infect Your Brain by Inhaling Through Nose, Study Suggests

The coronavirus can reach a person's brain after inhalation through the nose and getting stuck in nasal mucus, a new study found.

Coronavirus and brain damage has been studied in the past, and the effects range from mental illness to neurological symptoms like delirium.

This new study is the first known study suggesting that coronavirus may have the ability to infect a person's neurons through the nose, said a report from Daily Mail.

According to the report, German researchers performed autopsies on 33 deceased COVID-19 patients and studied mucus at the back of the nose and samples of brain tissue.

The study was published on Monday, November 30, in the scientific journal Nature Neuroscience.

Coronavirus Spike Proteins Latch Onto Brain During Infection

The team's analysis showed that there was some genetic material of the virus found in large quantities of the patients' mucus of the nasal cavity.

But they also found some spike proteins of the virus, which latch onto human receptors during infection, were also found in the brain.

According to Dr. Frank Heppner, a co-author of the study from Charité-Universitätsmedizin Berlin, the virus appears to use neural structures like the olfactory nerve after reaching the olfactory mucosa.

Using the nerves may have allowed the virus to reach the brain, said Heppner.

It is still a mystery as to how the virus goes to the brain from this point forward, and experts said there will still be further research needed to find out.

But the academics have a suspicion that the virus "moves from nerve cell to nerve cell in order to reach the brain," explained Dr. Helena Radbrunch who worked with Heppner on the study.

Radbrunch also suggested the virus may be transporting itself through a person's blood vessels since traces of the virus were also found in the walls of the brain's blood vessels.

Severe Coronavirus Infection Affects Neurological Function

The effect that the novel coronavirus has to the human brain isn't unique, especially considering other viruses like the flu or rabies.

It was also found in areas of the brain in change of several vital functions like breathing, which leads to drastic impacts on a person's respiratory function.

One of the common neurological symptoms found among those infected by the virus was delirium, a state in which a person has difficulty thinking clearly, become agitated or have mood swings.

Heppner said damage to critical areas of the brain might be causing this symptom but added that it may be the lack of oxygen going to the brain caused by lowered respiratory function.

Another team of researchers documented these various neurological symptoms occurring in COVID-19 patients in their study in the New England Journal of Medicine in April.

All neurological symptoms point to "encephalopathy", an umbrella term used for damage to the brain, the study suggested.

According to BBC, there are over 300 studies from all parts of the globe finding a prevalence of brain abnormalities among coronavirus patients.

This pool of research adds to the existing knowledge of the virus' effects on other systems in the human body.