Coronavirus Linked to Neurological Disease in Humans

A case-study of fatal encephalitis has, for the first time, led researchers to discover a direct association with strain OC 43 of the human coronavirus (HCoV), providing confirmatory evidence for the hypothesis that this respiratory virus can cause certain neurological diseases of unknown origin such as multiple sclerosis, Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, and encephalitis.

A co-leader of the study was Prof. Pierre Talbot, of Institut Armand-Frappier Centre at Institut National de la Recherche Scientifique (INRS; Québec, Canada), who had first demonstrated the virus’s ability to invade the human central nervous system and suggested neuropathological effects. Other researchers conducting the study were also from University College London (UK) and from Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children NHS Foundation Trust (UK).

They studied the case of a very young patient, an 11-month-old boy, who died from encephalitis. He had presented severe immunodeficiency and received a stem cell transplant. Although most cases of encephalitis are caused by viruses or bacteria, pinpointing the cause can be particularly difficult in immunodeficient patients. In this case it was not possible to identify the pathogen using conventional techniques. The researchers used various other methods that allowed them to irrefutably identify the presence of human coronavirus strain OC-43 in the young patient’s brain tissue.

“Among the methods used, deep sequencing of biopsy materials provides an important tool for the diagnosis of unexplained encephalitis, particularly in immunodeficient patients who have undergone stem cell transplantation,” said Prof. Talbot. This breakthrough is significant because it will make it possible to use specific treatments better tailored to patient conditions.

The study, by Morfopoulou S et al, was published August 2016 in the New England Journal of Medicine.

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