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Anosmia in COVID-19: Underlying Mechanisms and Assessment of an Olfactory Route to Brain Infection
Open accessAbstract
In recent months it has emerged that the novel coronavirus—responsible for the COVID-19 pandemic—causes reduction of smell and taste in a large fraction of patients. The chemosensory deficits are often the earliest, and sometimes the only signs in otherwise asymptomatic carriers of the SARS-CoV-2 virus. The reasons for the surprisingly early and specific chemosensory dysfunction in COVID-19 are now beginning to be elucidated. In this hypothesis review, we discuss implications of the recent finding that the prevalence of smell and taste dysfunction in COVID-19 patients differs between populations, possibly because of differences in the spike protein of different virus strains or because of differences in the host proteins that enable virus entry, thus modifying infectivity. We review recent progress in defining underlying cellular and molecular mechanisms of the virus-induced anosmia, with a focus on the emerging crucial role of sustentacular cells in the olfactory epithelium. We critically examine the current evidence whether and how the SARS-CoV-2 virus can follow a route from the olfactory epithelium in the nose to the brain to achieve brain infection, and we discuss the prospects for using the smell and taste dysfunctions seen in COVID-19 as an early and rapid diagnostic screening tool.
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“Such chemosensory deficits experienced in COVID‐19 are often short‐lived, with most symptoms resolving in 7‐10 days, with sense of smell often returning slightly earlier than taste.”
From The oral microbiome: Role of key organisms and complex networks in oral health and disease (2021) · cites this paper as [299]
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Metadata
- Authors
- Butowt, R., & von Bartheld, C. S.
- Affiliations
- Department of Molecular Cell Genetics, L. Rydygier Collegium Medicum, Nicolaus Copernicus University, Bydgoszcz, Poland
- Center of Biomedical Research Excellence in Cell Biology, Reno School of Medicine, University of Nevada, Reno, NV, USA
- Venue
- The Neuroscientist
- Publisher
- SAGE Publications
- Published
- 2020-09-11
- Volume
- 27
- Issue
- 6
- Pages
- 582-603
- ISSN
- 1073-8584 (ISSN-L)
- 1089-4098
- PMC
- PMC7488171
- OpenAlex
- W3084613638
- Cited by
- 345
- References
- 143
- Citations by year
- 2026: 14 · 2025: 22 · 2024: 38 · 2023: 73 · 2022: 97 · 2021: 91 · 2020: 8
- FWCI
- 23.68
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
- Locations
- The Neuroscientist (publishedVersion)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Funders
- national institutes of health (GM103554)
- Uniwersytet Mikolaja Kopernika w Toruniu (Excellence Initiative -Research University ID-UB)
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Sensory Systems › Olfactory and Sensory Function Studies
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Clinical Neurology › Long-Term Effects of COVID-19
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Infectious Diseases › SARS-CoV-2 and COVID-19 Research
- Keywords
- anosmia, COVID-19 pandemic, SARS-CoV-2, olfactory dysfunction, taste disorders, olfactory epithelium, sustentacular cells, asymptomatic carriers
- MeSH terms
- COVID-19, Anosmia, Animals, Brain, Humans, Nasal Mucosa, Smell, Olfactory Perception
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