Central nervous system autoimmune diseases associated with COVID-19: Comprehensive review

Abstract

The first appearance of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) named coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) was reported from Wuhan in December 2019. While this virus displays several respiratory manifestations such as severe pneumonia and acute respiratory distress syndrome, there are several reports of nervous system involvement in the affected patients. Currently, there is a growing number of cases with central nervous system (CNS) autoimmune diseases (ADs) including autoimmune encephalitis (AE), neuromyelitis optica spectrum disorder (NMOSD), CNS vasculitis, acute disseminated encephalomyelitis (ADEM), and multiple sclerosis (MS) secondary to COVID-19 infection. Symptoms of these diseases vary from mainly drowsiness, delirium, and motor deficits in ADEM, MS, and AE and also visual impairment, and sensory problems in NMOSD and transverse myelitis patients. The severity of COVID-19 symptoms was also different from disease to disease. Based on the previous studies moderate corticosteroid therapy or other medication such as intravenous human immunoglobulins (IVIG), and plasma exchange (PLEX) is suggested for the treatment of CNS ADs in COVID patients. Also, patients with a previous history of ADs and other comorbidities such as hypertension, diabetes mellitus, hypercholesterolemia, and ischemic heart disease are at greater risk to develop severe complications of COVID compared to other patients. Current pieces of evidence demonstrated that CNS ADs can occur due to COVID-19 infection and the healthcare system should attention to CNS ADs as a complication of COVID-19. However, further investigations are strongly needed to confirm these findings.