Neuroimmune dysfunction

ABSTRACT

Many investigators have suggested that long COVID is an autoimmune disease. Classic autoimmune diseases, such as rheumatoid arthritis, systemic lupus erythematosus, and multiple sclerosis (MS), are characterized by a misdirected and overzealous immune reactivity. Cytokines are small proteins secreted mostly by immune blood cells. Neuroimmunology is dedicated to understanding the interaction between the immune and nervous systems, demonstrated clearly in neurologic diseases such as MS and myasthenia gravis. Cytokines are important in patients that experience neuropsychiatric symptoms during, and long after chemotherapy, known as chemo brain. Important evidence for auto immunity in patients with long-COVID relates to the presence of antibodies in the blood or chronic fatigue syndrome that are directed against normal brain tissue. Immune responses themselves can mimic viral illnesses and some of the symptoms of the long-COVID syndrome, albeit transiently. © 2023 John Wiley & Sons Ltd. All rights reserved.