Discover and read the best of Twitter Threads about #glial
Most recents (3)
Ryan I take issue with your rash conclusion that #COVID-19 cannot survive in a persistent form in certain #LongCovid patients, and it's unfair to say that people studying the topic or discussing the possibility of COVID-19 chronic persistence are spreading rumors or causing harm!
2/ First, there is no way for you to *know* that #COVID-19 cannot persist in a latent/chronic form in certain patients. The #virus has only existed for a short time, meaning few studies on persistence have even been able to be conducted
3/ Second, have you noted all the cell types/body sites #COVID-19 can infect? (below). Have you obtained samples from all such sites in #LongCovid cases + searched for the #virus in a persistent form? (studies of cerebrospinal fluid, tissue biopsy etc?) nature.com/articles/s4159…
Ooof interesting! This team found Ljungan #virus (LV) antigens in autopsied #brain tissue from the hippocampus region of 18 #Alzheimer’s brains. No LV antigen was identified in any of their 11 age-matched control brains: ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/P…
2/ The LV virus antibodies reacted with #neurons and #astrocytes and also showed distinct positive reaction in the #amyloid/neuritic plaques. The team thinks the findings indicate LV #virus may persist in the Alzheimer’s brain
3/ Here’s an image from one of the #Alzheimer’s brains. The red stain visualizes presence of LV viral antigen in neurons, astrocytes + #glial cells. In Panel C, an amyloid/neuritic plaque is shown staining positive in the glial compartment + in dystrophic neurites 
“If borne out by subsequent studies, this paper will be a paradigm shift showing that #pain-sensitive #nerve cell terminals are not in fact always directly driven by a painful stimulus but instead can be driven by associated [Schwann] cells” —Prof Peter McNaughton, IC London
Here’s the formal paper 👉 Working in mice, the team discovered that Schwann cells (a type of #glial cell) can sense #pain (this was not known before!)☝️these Schwann cells wrap around nearby neurons which can further transmit pain signals to the brain: science.sciencemag.org/content/365/64…
One reason the discovery interests me is b/c #infection of Schwann cells can really dysregulate their function 👉 For example mycobacterium leprae can infect Schwann cells in a manner that results in peripheral #neuropathy and even changes in ATP levels: journals.plos.org/plosntds/artic…
