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Relationship: 2288
Title
Neuroinflammation leads to Encephalitis
Upstream event
Downstream event
AOPs Referencing Relationship
| AOP Name | Adjacency | Weight of Evidence | Quantitative Understanding | Point of Contact | Author Status | OECD Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Binding of Sars-CoV-2 spike protein to ACE 2 receptors expressed on brain cells (neuronal and non-neuronal) leads to neuroinflammation resulting in encephalitis | adjacent | High | Low | Agnes Aggy (send email) | Under development: Not open for comment. Do not cite | Under Development |
Taxonomic Applicability
Sex Applicability
Life Stage Applicability
Coronavirus infection can infect macrophages, microglia, and astrocytes in the CNS leading to encephalitis (Wu et al. 2020; Wu and Tang. 2020) (Koralnik et al. 2020).
Patients with PCR-confirmed SARS-CoV-2 infection and encephalitis (COV-Enc), encephalitis without SARS-CoV-2 infection (ENC) and healthy controls (HC) underwent an extended panel of CSF neuronal (NfL, T-tau), glial (GFAP, TREM2, YKL-40) and inflammatory biomarkers (IL-1β, IL-6, Il-8, TNF- α, CXCL-13 and β2-microglobulin). In COV-Enc cases, CSF was negative for SARS-CoV-2 real-time PCR but exhibited increased IL-8 levels independently from presence of pleocytosis/hyperproteinorracchia. COV-Enc patients showed increased IL-6, TNF- α, and β2-microglobulin and glial markers (GFAP, sTREM-2, YKL-40) levels similar to ENC but normal CXCL13 levels. Neuronal markers NfL and T-Tau were abnormal only in severe cases. The pattern of CSF alterations suggested a cytokine-release syndrome as the main inflammatory mechanism of SARS-CoV-2 related encephalitis (Pilotto A et al. 2021).
| ID | Experimental Design | Species | Upstream Observation | Downstream Observation | Citation (first author, year) | Notes |
|---|
| Title | First Author | Biological Plausibility |
Dose Concordance |
Temporal Concordance |
Incidence Concordance |
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