Yova Yurisqi Dian S., Laily Irfana, Yudith Annisa Ayu Rezkita, Aprilia Paramitasari
Introduction: Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Corona Virus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) is the primary etiology of Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19), which has been declared a global pandemic since March 11th 2020. This virus invasion mainly attacks the respiratory system because most ACE2 receptors are found on the alveolar lung cells. However, it is known that the virus has attacked the extrapulmonary system, such as gastrointestinal and hepatic, ocular, dermatological, cardiovascular, rheumatic, and even the nervous system, resulting in a variety of non-specific manifestations.
Literature review: Manifestations in the nervous system start with mild symptoms such as olfactory dysfunction or even become serious complications such as stroke. These non-specific symptoms can present with or without general symptoms and are often missed in diagnostics for COVID-19. Therefore, it is essential to understand the neuropathogenesis mechanism due to SARS-CoV-2 infection, which will be discussed in this review by searching literature through online databases such as PubMed and Science Direct.
Conclusion: There are four main mechanisms of neuropathogenesis in both the central and peripheral nervous systems which include direct invasion, hypoxic brain injury, immune-mediated injury, and coagulopathy. The neuropathogenesis mechanism that can aggravate the condition is a hypoxic brain injury which increases the risk of ischemic stroke, seizures, and others. This condition occurs on average in COVID-19 patients aged more than 60 years old and with various comorbid, especially hypertension.
Keywords: nervous system, neuroinvasion, pathogenesis, SARS-CoV-2 infection