The Brain’s Immune Cells Stand Sentinel Against Viral Invasion

Some viruses, possibly even SARS-CoV-2, can sneak into the brain through the nose. Recent studies show that microglia are ready for them when they do.

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ABOVE: T cells (red) in the olfactory bulb of mice engage with antigens on vesicular stomatitis virus, leading to cell signaling (green) that ultimately prevents neuronal death.
E.A. MOSEMAN ET AL., SCI IMMUNOL, 5:EABB1817, 2020

Failure to smell fresh cut grass or a poo-laden diaper is, at least these days, a potential sign of COVID-19 infection. “People say things smell funny or they can’t smell at all,” says Harvard University neurobiologist Sandeep Datta. Reading about people’s experiences of anosmia, Datta wondered how SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, might be having this effect. One possibility was that the virus attacks cells that line and support olfactory neurons in the nose. Alternatively, SARS-CoV-2 could be directly targeting the neurons themselves.

Datta’s and other researchers’ work—which so far includes genetic and cellular analyses in humans, rodents, and monkeys—suggests that mammalian olfactory neurons don’t have the right cell receptors for the virus to get ...

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Meet the Author

  • Ashley Yeager

    Ashley started at The Scientist in 2018. Before joining the staff, she worked as a freelance editor and writer, a writer at the Simons Foundation, and a web producer at Science News, among other positions. She holds a bachelor’s degree in journalism from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, and a master’s degree in science writing from MIT. Ashley edits the Scientist to Watch and Profile sections of the magazine and writes news, features, and other stories for both online and print.

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October 2020

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