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Advanced Neurology

REVIEW ARTICLE
Linkage between SARS-CoV-2 infection and

neurodegenerative disorders: Review and
current update

†
†
†
Anika Batra , Mehak Singh , Parnica Sarkar , and Amaan Javed*
University College of Medical Sciences (University of Delhi), Dilshad Garden, Delhi, India

Abstract

The emergence of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus (SARS-CoV) in
2002, followed by the Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV)
that causes fatal illness in 2012, has made coronaviruses a public health concern.
Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by SARS-CoV-2 infection does not
only affect the respiratory system but has also been observed to elicit neurological
manifestations, with anosmia and ageusia being the most common, followed by
headache, seizures, neuropathies, and encephalopathy. In addition to SARS-CoV and
MERS-CoV which have been proven to be neuroinvasive, SARS-CoV-2 has been found
to worsen preexisting long-term neurodegenerative diseases such as Parkinson’s
disease and Alzheimer’s disease, apart from triggering the acute neurological
symptoms. The association between COVID-19 and relatively rare neurodegenerative
† These authors contributed equally
to this work. disorders such as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis and Huntington’s disease has yet to
be corroborated due to limited significant data. Studies have shown that COVID-19
*Corresponding author: does not seem to exacerbate these disorders, and the severity of COVID-19-related
Amaan Javed
(amaan09javed@gmail.com) disease and fatalities is not significantly higher in the affected patients than in
the general population. However, increased complications have been reported
Citation: Batra A, Singh M,
Sarkar P, Javed A. Linkage among the patients in advanced stages of these diseases. Hence, it is imperative
between SARS-CoV-2 infection to conduct long-term, comprehensive investigations on the effects of SARS-CoV-2
and neurodegenerative disorders: on neurodegenerative disorders, with the ultimate aim of developing appropriate
Review and current update.
Adv Neuro. 2024;3(1):2200. interventions. Studies involving larger cohorts of people of varying ages, disease
https://doi.org/10.36922/an.2200 duration, and ethnicity are urgently warranted.
Received: November 7, 2023
Accepted: January 9, 2024 Keywords: SARS-CoV-2; Coronavirus; COVID-19; Neurological sequelae; Neurodegenerative
disorder
Published Online: March 14, 2024
Copyright: © 2024 Author(s).
This is an Open-Access article
distributed under the terms of the
Creative Commons Attribution 1. Introduction
License, permitting distribution,
and reproduction in any medium, Infection cases of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus (SARS-CoV) first
provided the original work is emerged in 2002, preceding the emergence of its relative, Middle East respiratory
properly cited. syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV), in 2012. These viruses lead to devastating
Publisher’s Note: AccScience respiratory illness, thereby making coronaviruses a public health concern. The spread
Publishing remains neutral with of SARS-CoV-2 virus began in December 2019, with its first case being reported in
regard to jurisdictional claims in
published maps and institutional Wuhan, China, from where the spread escalated to the other parts the world, resulting
affiliations. in a dreadful pandemic, causing nations of the world to take drastic measures to contain

Volume 3 Issue 1 (2024) 1 https://doi.org/10.36922/an.2200