TABLE 1.

CNS damage by SARS-CoV-2 suggesting susceptibility to Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s disease.

Characteristics	Alzheimer’s disease	Parkinson’s disease	References
Affected brain regions (Autopsy findings)	Hippocampus, cortex (Frontal, occipital, and cingulate), insula.	Midbrain, basal ganglia, thalamus.	Solomon et al., 2020; von Weyhern et al., 2020; Generoso et al., 2021
Brain morphological and macroscopic changes	Edema, hemorrhagic lesions, hydrocephalus, atrophy and low brain mass, infarcts.		Paniz-Mondolfi et al., 2020; Reichard et al., 2020; Wichmann et al., 2020
Brain regions expressing ACE2 and TMPRSS2	Prefrontal cortex, hippocampus.	Striatum (Human brain), SNpr, SNpc (mouse brain)	Chen R. et al., 2020; Qiao et al., 2020
Intracellular SARS-CoV-2	Frontal cortex	No findings report	Paniz-Mondolfi et al., 2020; Liu J. M. et al., 2021
Biochemical markers	Glia and microglia response, cytokine storm (increased interleukins IL-1β, IL-6, IL-8, IL-12, IL-17, IL-18). Oxidative stress in various brain regions such as BBB and neurons susceptible to cell death.		Chaudhry et al., 2020; Almutairi et al., 2021;Chiricosta et al., 2021; Frank et al., 2022

SNpr, substantia nigra pars reticulate; SNpc, substantia nigra pars compacta; IL, interleukin.