A group of researchers from the University of Helsinki leaded by Prof. Jari Koistinaho and Dr. Dr. Giuseppe Balistreri, in collaboration with the University of Eastern Finland, recently published a short report with relevant results on the infection of human neurons with SARS-COV-2, and its potential relation with Long COVID neurological symptoms. They found that neurons derived from human pluripotent stem cells are susceptible to the full replication cycle of SARS-COV-2. To infect neurons, the virus needs to enter the cells and reach lysosomes.
These results open an important question: can it be that few neurons in human brain are infected for a long time and this causes Long COVID neurological symptoms?
https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.09.14.508057v1?rss=1
University of Helsinki is an official partner of the Long COVID Project
