Sexual dimorphism in a neuronal mechanism of spinal hyperexcitability across rodent and human models of pathological pain

Abstract:

The prevalence and severity of many chronic pain syndromes differ across sex, and recent studies have identified differences in immune signalling within spinal nociceptive circuits as a potential mediator. Although it has been proposed that sex-specific pain mechanisms converge once they reach neurons within the superficial dorsal horn, direct investigations using rodent and human preclinical pain models have been lacking.

Here, we discovered that in the Freund’s adjuvant in vivo model of inflammatory pain, where both male and female rats display tactile allodynia, a pathological coupling between KCC2-dependent disinhibition and N-methyl-D-aspartate receptor (NMDAR) potentiation within superficial dorsal horn neurons was observed in male but not female rats. Unlike males, the neuroimmune mediator brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) failed to downregulate inhibitory signalling elements (KCC2 and STEP61) and upregulate excitatory elements (pFyn, GluN2B and pGluN2B) in female rats, resulting in no effect of ex vivo brain-derived neurotrophic factor on synaptic NMDAR responses in female lamina I neurons. Importantly, this sex difference in spinal pain processing was conserved from rodents to humans.

As in rodents, ex vivo spinal treatment with BDNF downregulated markers of disinhibition and upregulated markers of facilitated excitation in superficial dorsal horn neurons from male but not female human organ donors. Ovariectomy in female rats recapitulated the male pathological pain neuronal phenotype, with BDNF driving a coupling between disinhibition and NMDAR potentiation in adult lamina I neurons following the prepubescent elimination of sex hormones in females. This discovery of sexual dimorphism in a central neuronal mechanism of chronic pain across species provides a foundational step towards a better understanding and treatment for pain in both sexes.

Source: Dedek A, Xu J, Lorenzo LÉ, Godin AG, Kandegedara CM, Glavina G, Landrigan JA, Lombroso PJ, De Koninck Y, Tsai EC, Hildebrand ME. Sexual dimorphism in a neuronal mechanism of spinal hyperexcitability across rodent and human models of pathological pain. Brain. 2022 Apr 29;145(3):1124-1138. doi: 10.1093/brain/awab408. PMID: 35323848; PMCID: PMC9050559. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9050559/ (Full text)

Persistent circulating SARS-CoV-2 spike is associated with post-acute COVID-19 sequelae

Abstract:

The diagnosis and management of post-acute sequelae of COVID-19 (PASC) poses an ongoing medical challenge. Identifying biomarkers associated with PASC would immensely improve the classification of PASC patients and provide the means to evaluate treatment strategies. We analyzed plasma samples collected from a cohort of PASC and COVID-19 patients (n = 63) to quantify circulating viral antigens and inflammatory markers. Strikingly, we detect SARS-CoV-2 spike antigen in a majority of PASC patients up to 12 months post-diagnosis, suggesting the presence of an active persistent SARS-CoV-2 viral reservoir. Furthermore, temporal antigen profiles for many patients show the presence of spike at multiple time points over several months, highlighting the potential utility of the SARS-CoV-2 full spike protein as a biomarker for PASC

Source: Zoe SwankYasmeen SenussiGalit AlterDavid R. Walt. Persistent circulating SARS-CoV-2 spike is associated with post-acute COVID-19 sequelae.

Novel genes and sex differences in COVID-19 severity

Abstract:

Here we describe the results of a genome-wide study conducted in 11 939 COVID-19 positive cases with an extensive clinical information that were recruited from 34 hospitals across Spain (SCOURGE consortium). In sex-disaggregated genome-wide association studies for COVID-19 hospitalization, genome-wide significance (p < 5×10-8) was crossed for variants in 3p21.31 and 21q22.11 loci only among males (p = 1.3×10-22 and p = 8.1×10-12, respectively), and for variants in 9q21.32 near TLE1 only among females (p = 4.4×10-8).

In a second phase, results were combined with an independent Spanish cohort (1598 COVID-19 cases and 1068 population controls), revealing in the overall analysis two novel risk loci in 9p13.3 and 19q13.12, with fine-mapping prioritized variants functionally associated with AQP3 (p = 2.7×10-8) and ARHGAP33 (p = 1.3×10-8), respectively.

The meta-analysis of both phases with four European studies stratified by sex from the Host Genetics Initiative confirmed the association of the 3p21.31 and 21q22.11 loci predominantly in males and replicated a recently reported variant in 11p13 (ELF5, p = 4.1×10-8). Six of the COVID-19 HGI discovered loci were replicated and an HGI-based genetic risk score predicted the severity strata in SCOURGE.

We also found more SNP-heritability and larger heritability differences by age (<60 or ≥ 60 years) among males than among females. Parallel genome-wide screening of inbreeding depression in SCOURGE also showed an effect of homozygosity in COVID-19 hospitalization and severity and this effect was stronger among older males. In summary, new candidate genes for COVID-19 severity and evidence supporting genetic disparities among sexes are provided.

Source: Cruz R, Almeida SD, Heredia ML, Quintela I, Ceballos FC, Pita G, Lorenzo-Salazar JM, González-Montelongo R, Gago-Domínguez M, Porras MS, Castaño JAT, Nevado J, Aguado JM, Aguilar C, Aguilera-Albesa S, Almadana V, Almoguera B, Alvarez N, Andreu-Bernabeu Á, Arana-Arri E, Arango C, Arranz MJ, Artiga MJ, Baptista-Rosas RC, Barreda-Sánchez M, Belhassen-Garcia M, Bezerra JF, Bezerra MAC, Boix-Palop L, Brion M, Brugada R, Bustos M, Calderón EJ, Carbonell C, Castano L, Castelao JE, Conde-Vicente R, Cordero-Lorenzana ML, Cortes-Sanchez JL, Corton M, Darnaude MT, De Martino-Rodríguez A, Campo-Pérez V, Bustamante AD, Domínguez-Garrido E, Luchessi AD, Eirós R, Sanabria GME, Fariñas MC, Fernández-Robelo U, Fernández-Rodríguez A, Fernández-Villa T, Gil-Fournier B, Gómez-Arrue J, Álvarez BG, Quirós FGB, González-Peñas J, Gutiérrez-Bautista JF, Herrero MJ, Herrero-Gonzalez A, Jimenez-Sousa MA, Lattig MC, Borja AL, Lopez-Rodriguez R, Mancebo E, Martín-López C, Martín V, Martinez-Nieto O, Martinez-Lopez I, Martinez-Resendez MF, Martinez-Perez Á, Mazzeu JA, Macías EM, Minguez P, Cuerda VM, Silbiger VN, Oliveira SF, Ortega-Paino E, Parellada M, Paz-Artal E, Santos NPC, Pérez-Matute P, Perez P, Pérez-Tomás ME, Perucho T, Pinsach-Abuin ML, Pompa-Mera EN, Porras-Hurtado GL, Pujol A, León SR, Resino S, Fernandes MR, Rodríguez-Ruiz E, Rodriguez-Artalejo F, Rodriguez-Garcia JA, Ruiz-Cabello F, Ruiz-Hornillos J, Ryan P, Soria JM, Souto JC, Tamayo E, Tamayo-Velasco A, Taracido-Fernandez JC, Teper A, Torres-Tobar L, Urioste M, Valencia-Ramos J, Yáñez Z, Zarate R, Nakanishi T, Pigazzini S, Degenhardt F, Butler-Laporte G, Maya-Miles D, Bujanda L, Bouysran Y, Palom A, Ellinghaus D, Martínez-Bueno M, Rolker S, Amitrano S, Roade L, Fava F, Spinner CD, Prati D, Bernardo D, Garcia F, Darcis G, Fernández-Cadenas I, Holter JC, Banales JM, Frithiof R, Duga S, Asselta R, Pereira AC, Romero-Gómez M, Nafría-Jiménez B, Hov JR, Migeotte I, Renieri A, Planas AM, Ludwig KU, Buti M, Rahmouni S, Alarcón-Riquelme ME, Schulte EC, Franke A, Karlsen TH, Valenti L, Zeberg H, Richards B, Ganna A, Boada M, Rojas I, Ruiz A, Sánchez P, Real LM; SCOURGE Cohort Group; HOSTAGE Cohort Group; GRA@CE Cohort Group, Guillen-Navarro E, Ayuso C, González-Neira A, Riancho JA, Rojas-Martinez A, Flores C, Lapunzina P, Carracedo Á. Novel genes and sex differences in COVID-19 severity. Hum Mol Genet. 2022 Jun 16:ddac132. doi: 10.1093/hmg/ddac132. Epub ahead of print. PMID: 35708486.  https://academic.oup.com/hmg/advance-article/doi/10.1093/hmg/ddac132/6607933  (Full text available as PDF file)

Mild respiratory COVID can cause multi-lineage neural cell and myelin dysregulation

Summary:

COVID survivors frequently experience lingering neurological symptoms that resemble cancer therapy-related cognitive impairment, a syndrome for which white-matter microglial reactivity and consequent neural dysregulation is central. Here, we explored the neurobiological effects of respiratory SARS-CoV-2 infection and found white-matter-selective microglial reactivity in mice and humans.
Following mild respiratory COVID in mice, persistently impaired hippocampal neurogenesis, decreased oligodendrocytes and myelin loss were evident together with elevated CSF cytokines/chemokines including CCL11. Systemic CCL11 administration specifically caused hippocampal microglial reactivity and impaired neurogenesis. Concordantly, humans with lasting cognitive symptoms post-COVID exhibit elevated CCL11 levels. Compared to SARS-CoV-2, mild respiratory influenza in mice caused similar patterns of white matter-selective microglial reactivity, oligodendrocyte loss, impaired neurogenesis and elevated CCL11 at early timepoints, but after influenza only elevated CCL11 and hippocampal pathology persisted. These findings illustrate similar neuropathophysiology after cancer therapy and respiratory SARS-CoV-2 infection which may contribute to cognitive impairment following even mild COVID.
Source: Anthony Fernández-Castañeda, Peiwen Lu, Anna C. Geraghty, Eric Song, MyoungHwa Lee, Jamie Wood, Michael R. O’Dea, Selena Dutton, Kiarash Shamardani, Kamsi Nwangwu, Rebecca Mancusi, Belgin Yalçın, Kathryn R. Taylor, Lehi AcostaAlvarez, Karen Malacon, Michael B. Keough, Lijun Ni, Pamelyn J. Woo, Daniel Contreras-Esquivel, Angus Martin Shaw Toland, Jeff R. Gehlhausen, Jon Klein, Takehiro Takahashi, Julio Silva, Benjamin Israelow, Carolina Lucas, Tianyang Mao, Mario A. Peña-Hernández, Alexandra Tabachnikova, Robert J. Homer, Laura Tabacof, Jenna Tosto-Mancuso, Erica Breyman, Amy Kontorovich, Dayna McCarthy, Martha Quezado, Hannes Vogel, Marco M. Hefti, Daniel P. Perl, Shane Liddelow, Rebecca Folkerth, David Putrino, Avindra Nath, Akiko Iwasaki, Michelle Monje. Mild respiratory COVID can cause multi-lineage neural cell and myelin dysregulation.  Cell (2022). Published: June 12, 2022 DOI:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cell.2022.06.008 https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0092867422007139 (Full text available as PDF file)

Neurotoxic amyloidogenic peptides in the proteome of SARS-COV2: potential implications for neurological symptoms in COVID-19

Abstract:

COVID-19 is primarily known as a respiratory disease caused by SARS-CoV-2. However, neurological symptoms such as memory loss, sensory confusion, severe headaches, and even stroke are reported in up to 30% of cases and can persist even after the infection is over (long COVID). These neurological symptoms are thought to be produced by the virus infecting the central nervous system, however we don’t understand the molecular mechanisms triggering them. The neurological effects of COVID-19 share similarities to neurodegenerative diseases in which the presence of cytotoxic aggregated amyloid protein or peptides is a common feature. Following the hypothesis that some neurological symptoms of COVID-19 may also follow an amyloid etiology we identified two peptides from the SARS-CoV-2 proteome that self-assemble into amyloid assemblies. Furthermore, these amyloids were shown to be highly toxic to neuronal cells. We suggest that cytotoxic aggregates of SARS-CoV-2 proteins may trigger neurological symptoms in COVID-19.

Source: Charnley, M., Islam, S., Bindra, G.K. et al. Neurotoxic amyloidogenic peptides in the proteome of SARS-COV2: potential implications for neurological symptoms in COVID-19. Nat Commun 133387 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-022-30932-1 https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-022-30932-1 (Full text)

Long COVID-19 and Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome: similarities and differences of two peas in a pod

Sr. Editor,

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a highly contagious respiratory disease caused by the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-COV-2). Prolonged recovery of COVID-19 symptoms, so-called Long COVID-19, has been described even in patients who have mild symptoms and did not required hospitalisation. Various studies showed that at least one out of ten COVID-19 symptomatic patients develop Long
COVID-19.

Although there is an absence of a evidence-based clinical practice guidelines neither a clear aetiopatogenesis, a clinical case definition of post-COVID-19 condition was proposed across the International Severe Respiratory and Emerging Infection Consortium (ISARIC) and the World Health Organization (WHO). Long COVID-19 occurs in individuals with a history of probable or confirmed SARS-CoV-2 infection, usually 3 months from the onset of COVID-19 with symptoms that last for at least 2 months and cannot be explained by an alternative diagnosis.

Read the rest of this article HERE.

Source: Qanneta R, COVID-19 persistente y Encefalomielitis Mialgica /Sındrome de Fatiga Cronica: similitudes y diferencias,  Reumatologia Clinica (2022), doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.reuma.2022.05.003 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9167847/pdf/main.pdf (Full text available in English as PDF file)

Molecular Mechanisms of Neuroinflammation in ME/CFS and Long COVID to Sustain Disease and Promote Relapses

Abstract:

Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (ME/CFS) is a disease now well-documented as having arisen commonly from a viral infection, but also from other external stressors, like exposure to agricultural chemicals, other types of infection, surgery, or other severe stress events. Research has shown these events produce a systemic molecular inflammatory response and chronic immune activation and dysregulation. What has been more difficult to establish is the hierarchy of the physiological responses that give rise to the myriad of symptoms that ME/CFS patients experience, and why they do not resolve and are generally life-long.

The severity of the symptoms frequently fluctuates through relapse recovery periods, with brain-centered symptoms of neuroinflammation, loss of homeostatic control, “brain fog” affecting cognitive ability, lack of refreshing sleep, and poor response to even small stresses. How these brain effects develop with ME/CFS from the initiating external effector, whether virus or other cause, is poorly understood and that is what our paper aims to address.

We propose the hypothesis that following the initial stressor event, the subsequent systemic pathology moves to the brain via neurovascular pathways or through a dysfunctional blood-brain barrier (BBB), resulting in chronic neuroinflammation and leading to a sustained illness with chronic relapse recovery cycles. Signaling through recognized pathways from the brain back to body physiology is likely part of the process by which the illness cycle in the peripheral system is sustained and why healing does not occur. By contrast, Long COVID (Post-COVID-19 condition) is a very recent ME/CFS-like illness arising from the single pandemic virus, SARS-CoV-2.

We believe the ME/CFS-like ongoing effects of Long COVID are arising by very similar mechanisms involving neuroinflammation, but likely with some unique signaling, resulting from the pathology of the initial SARS-CoV-2 infection. The fact that there are very similar symptoms in both ongoing diseases, despite the diversity in the nature of the initial stressors, supports the concept of a similar dysfunctional CNS component common to both.

Source: Tate W, Walker M, Sweetman E, Helliwell A, Peppercorn K, Edgar C, Blair A, Chatterjee A. Molecular Mechanisms of Neuroinflammation in ME/CFS and Long COVID to Sustain Disease and Promote Relapses. Front Neurol. 2022 May 25;13:877772. doi: 10.3389/fneur.2022.877772. PMID: 35693009; PMCID: PMC9174654.  https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9174654/ (Full text)

A global systematic analysis of the occurrence, severity, and recovery pattern of long COVID in 2020 and 2021

Abstract:

Importance: While much of the attention on the COVID-19 pandemic was directed at the daily counts of cases and those with serious disease overwhelming health services, increasingly, reports have appeared of people who experience debilitating symptoms after the initial infection. This is popularly known as long COVID.

Objective: To estimate by country and territory of the number of patients affected by long COVID in 2020 and 2021, the severity of their symptoms and expected pattern of recovery.

Design: We jointly analyzed ten ongoing cohort studies in ten countries for the occurrence of three major symptom clusters of long COVID among representative COVID cases. The defining symptoms of the three clusters (fatigue, cognitive problems, and shortness of breath) are explicitly mentioned in the WHO clinical case definition. For incidence of long COVID, we adopted the minimum duration after infection of three months from the WHO case definition. We pooled data from the contributing studies, two large medical record databases in the United States, and findings from 44 published studies using a Bayesian meta-regression tool. We separately estimated occurrence and pattern of recovery in patients with milder acute infections and those hospitalized. We estimated the incidence and prevalence of long COVID globally and by country in 2020 and 2021 as well as the severity-weighted prevalence using disability weights from the Global Burden of Disease study.

Results: Analyses are based on detailed information for 1906 community infections and 10526 hospitalized patients from the ten collaborating cohorts, three of which included children. We added published data on 37262 community infections and 9540 hospitalized patients as well as ICD-coded medical record data concerning 1.3 million infections. Globally, in 2020 and 2021, 144.7 million (95% uncertainty interval [UI] 54.8-312.9) people suffered from any of the three symptom clusters of long COVID. This corresponds to 3.69% (1.38-7.96) of all infections. The fatigue, respiratory, and cognitive clusters occurred in 51.0% (16.9-92.4), 60.4% (18.9-89.1), and 35.4% (9.4-75.1) of long COVID cases, respectively. Those with milder acute COVID-19 cases had a quicker estimated recovery (median duration 3.99 months [IQR 3.84-4.20]) than those admitted for the acute infection (median duration 8.84 months [IQR 8.10-9.78]). At twelve months, 15.1% (10.3-21.1) continued to experience long COVID symptoms.

Conclusions and relevance: The occurrence of debilitating ongoing symptoms of COVID-19 is common. Knowing how many people are affected, and for how long, is important to plan for rehabilitative services and support to return to social activities, places of learning, and the workplace when symptoms start to wane.

Source: Wulf Hanson S, Abbafati C, Aerts JG, Al-Aly Z, Ashbaugh C, Ballouz T, Blyuss O, Bobkova P, Bonsel G, Borzakova S, Buonsenso D, Butnaru D, Carter A, Chu H, De Rose C, Diab MM, Ekbom E, El Tantawi M, Fomin V, Frithiof R, Gamirova A, Glybochko PV, Haagsma JA, Javanmard SH, Hamilton EB, Harris G, Heijenbrok-Kal MH, Helbok R, Hellemons ME, Hillus D, Huijts SM, Hultström M, Jassat W, Kurth F, Larsson IM, Lipcsey M, Liu C, Loflin CD, Malinovschi A, Mao W, Mazankova L, McCulloch D, Menges D, Mohammadifard N, Munblit D, Nekliudov NA, Ogbuoji O, Osmanov IM, Peñalvo JL, Petersen MS, Puhan MA, Rahman M, Rass V, Reinig N, Ribbers GM, Ricchiuto A, Rubertsson S, Samitova E, Sarrafzadegan N, Shikhaleva A, Simpson KE, Sinatti D, Soriano JB, Spiridonova E, Steinbeis F, Svistunov AA, Valentini P, van de Water BJ, van den Berg-Emons R, Wallin E, Witzenrath M, Wu Y, Xu H, Zoller T, Adolph C, Albright J, Amlag JO, Aravkin AY, Bang-Jensen BL, Bisignano C, Castellano R, Castro E, Chakrabarti S, Collins JK, Dai X, Daoud F, Dapper C, Deen A, Duncan BB, Erickson M, Ewald SB, Ferrari AJ, Flaxman AD, Fullman N, Gamkrelidze A, Giles JR, Guo G, Hay SI, He J, Helak M, Hulland EN, Kereselidze M, Krohn KJ, Lazzar-Atwood A, Lindstrom A, Lozano R, Magistro B, Malta DC, Månsson J, Mantilla Herrera AM, Mokdad AH, Monasta L, Nomura S, Pasovic M, Pigott DM, Reiner RC, Reinke G, Ribeiro ALP, Santomauro DF, Sholokhov A, Spurlock EE, Walcott R, Walker A, Wiysonge CS, Zheng P, Bettger JP, Murray CJ, Vos T. A global systematic analysis of the occurrence, severity, and recovery pattern of long COVID in 2020 and 2021. medRxiv [Preprint]. 2022 May 27:2022.05.26.22275532. doi: 10.1101/2022.05.26.22275532. PMID: 35664995; PMCID: PMC9164454.  https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9164454/ (Full text)

Generalizable Long COVID Subtypes: Findings from the NIH N3C and RECOVER Programs

Abstract:

Accurate stratification of patients with Post-acute sequelae of SARS-CoV-2 infection (PASC, or long COVID) would allow precision clinical management strategies and could enable more focused investigation of the molecular pathogenetic mechanisms of this disease. However, the natural history of long COVID is incompletely understood and characterized by an extremely wide range of manifestations that are difficult to analyze computationally. In addition, the generalizability of machine learning classification of COVID-19 clinical outcomes has rarely been tested.

We present a method for computationally modeling long COVID phenotype data based on electronic healthcare records (EHRs) and for assessing pairwise phenotypic similarity between patients using semantic similarity. Using unsupervised machine learning (k-means clustering), we found six distinct clusters of long COVID patients, each with distinct profiles of phenotypic abnormalities with enrichments in pulmonary, cardiovascular, neuropsychiatric, and constitutional symptoms such as fatigue and fever.

There was a highly significant association of cluster membership with a range of pre-existing conditions and with measures of severity during acute COVID-19. We show that the clusters we identified in one hospital system were generalizable across different hospital systems. Semantic phenotypic clustering can provide a foundation for assigning patients to stratified subgroups for natural history or therapy studies on long COVID.

Source: Reese J, Blau H, Bergquist T, Loomba JJ, Callahan T, Laraway B, Antonescu C, Casiraghi E, Coleman B, Gargano M, Wilkins K, Cappelletti L, Fontana T, Ammar N, Antony B, Murali TM, Karlebach G, McMurry JA, Williams A, Moffitt R, Banerjee J, Solomonides AE, Davis H, Kostka K, Valentini G, Sahner D, Chute CG, Madlock-Brown C, Haendel MA, Robinson PN; and the RECOVER Consortium. Generalizable Long COVID Subtypes: Findings from the NIH N3C and RECOVER Programs. medRxiv [Preprint]. 2022 May 25:2022.05.24.22275398. doi: 10.1101/2022.05.24.22275398. PMID: 35665012; PMCID: PMC9164456. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9164456/ (Full text)

Acute Neurologic Complications of COVID-19 and Postacute Sequelae of COVID-19

Abstract:

Neurologic complications can be seen in mild to severe COVID-19 with a higher risk in patients with severe COVID-19. These can occur as a direct consequence of viral infection or consequences of treatments. The spectrum ranges from non-life-threatening, like headache, fatigue, malaise, anosmia, dysgeusia, to life-threatening complications, like stroke, encephalitis, coma, Guillain-Barre syndrome. A high index of suspicion can aid in early recognition and treatment. Outcomes depend on severity of underlying COVID-19, patient age, comorbidities, and severity of the complication. Postacute sequelae of COVID-19 range from fatigue, headache, dysosmia, brain fog, anxiety, depression to an overlap with postintensive care syndrome.

Source: Dangayach NS, Newcombe V, Sonnenville R. Acute Neurologic Complications of COVID-19 and Postacute Sequelae of COVID-19. Crit Care Clin. 2022 Jul;38(3):553-570. doi: 10.1016/j.ccc.2022.03.002. Epub 2022 Mar 23. PMID: 35667743; PMCID: PMC8940578. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8940578/ (Full text)