ABSTRACT
Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) interacts with the nervous system directly and indirectly by affecting the activation of the immune system. Guillain–Barré syndrome (GBS) is triggered by an inappropriate immune system activation that overlaps with the neurotoxic mechanism of an invading pathogen. Here, we discuss the complexity of an abnormal immune system response leading to the generation of autoimmunity in the setting of acute viral infection. A 67-year-old male patient with COVID-19 developed a sensory motor acute polyneuropathy with respiratory failure. Several serum inflammatory and neurodegeneration markers were collected during hospital days 1, 3, 8, and 67 and compared to healthy individuals. Neural cell adhesion molecule 1 (NCAM-1) and neurofilament light chain (NfL) values were highly variable when compared to healthy individuals, but not to the reference COVID-19 group. We focused our attention on NCAM-1 as a possible target for antibodies directed at COVID-19 in silico.
ABSTRACT
Smoking is associated with one of five deaths in the United States. Multimodality tobacco treatment increases rates of successful cessation by at least 20%. The coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic has put a halt to many inpatient and outpatient medical visits that have been deemed nonessential, including tobacco treatment. The transition to telehealth has been wrought with challenges. Although data on the association between coronavirus disease 2019 and tobacco products are mixed, the overall health consequences of tobacco point towards increased risk of morbidity and death that is associated with the virus. This leaves smoking as one of the few readily modifiable risk factors in an environment understandably not set up to prioritize cessation. A military health facility on Fort Eustis in Virginia runs a successful tobacco treatment program and adapted it to pandemic times. This article describes the process and lessons learned from this initiative. The model is applicable and scalable to government and civilian health centers as health care adapts to a new normal.