Neurotropism and Neuroinflammation in COVID-19 Patients With Delirium.

Overview

Emerging evidence indicates that SARS-CoV-2, the etiologic agent of COVID-19, can cause neurological, neuropsychological and psychiatric complications. Given the global dimensions of the current pandemic, there is to consider the possible large-scale neurocognitive impact of COVID-19. Therefore, there is an urgent need for longitudinal studies to determine the acute and chronic effects that COVID-19 may have on the Central Nervous System. These putative effects include the possibility that the CNS serves as a reservoir for the virus, and that COVID-19 triggers CNS deleterious inflammatory cascades and neurodegenerative process. The public implications of these effects are very important in the long term.

The BRAINSTORM project aims at creating a proof-of-concept dataset from severe COVID-19 patients with delirium. For the first time, this longitudinal study will rely on repeated and concomitant: i) SARS-CoV-2 quasispecies detection and associated serology testing profiles description (peripheral blood and cerebrospinal fluid - CSF), ii) systemic and central immune response characterization, associated to the assessment of CNS damage biomarkers (peripheral blood and CSF), iii) in vivo brain PET-TSPO acquisitions (Positon Emission Tomography using a radioligand that targets the Translocator Protein, which is upregulated in activated microglia), iv) structural/functional brain MRI assessment (PWI/DWI mismatch imaging, quantification of gray and white matter microstructural integrity, DTI, functional connectivity), v) multi-domains neurocognitive assessment. This dataset will be made FAIR to allow open data use and to prepare future studies.

Conditions