Correlation between CNS Tuberculosis and the COVID-19 Pandemic: The Neurological and Therapeutic Insights

ACS Chem Neurosci. 2020 Sep 16;11(18):2789-2792. doi: 10.1021/acschemneuro.0c00546. Epub 2020 Sep 3.

Abstract

The recent outbreak of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome-Coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) from Wuhan, China, was caused by a single-stranded RNA virus which has kept the entire world stranded. The outbreak was first diagnosed with respiratory illness, but recent findings of acute necrotizing hemorrhage of brain, brain encephalopathy, and the presence of the virus in the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) have unveiled its neuroinvasivness. Various clinical features related to the central nervous system (CNS) and peripheral nervous system (PNS) due to COVID-19 infection are now identified. We demonstrate here an apparent similarity in neurological disorders of COVID-19 with CNS tuberculosis, which suggests that some anti-tubercular drugs may be used as therapeutic agents against COVID-19 infection.

Keywords: CNS tuberculosis; SARS-CoV-2; neuroinvasivness; trained immunity.

Publication types

  • Review

MeSH terms

  • Animals
  • Betacoronavirus
  • Brain / virology
  • COVID-19
  • Central Nervous System Diseases / virology*
  • Coronavirus Infections / complications*
  • Humans
  • Pandemics
  • Pneumonia, Viral / complications*
  • SARS-CoV-2
  • Tuberculosis, Central Nervous System* / immunology
  • Tuberculosis, Central Nervous System* / pathology
  • Tuberculosis, Central Nervous System* / physiopathology