CONCERNING THE NEUROTROPY AND NEUROINVASIVENESS OF CORONAVIRUSES
At the present state of COVID-19 we may propose some preliminary thoughts on its direct and distant sequels. In our review we propose that novel virus SARS-CoV-2, as well as other members of Coronaviridae family, may possess neurotropic and neuroinvasive features; it may enter the nervous system via the intranasal way and directly infect human brain, causing lesions in the brainstem nuclei of the cardiorespiratory center. We propose, that such a lesion may worsen the respiratory distress and lead to the respiratory failure in some patients. Taking this into the consideration, immunomodulating and antiviral drugs that utilize the intranasal way of delivery may help in prophylactic and treatment of the COVID-19. All these proposals are preliminary; we call for the wide range of experimental and clinical investigations to prove or disprove them.