Long COVID and the brain network of Proust's madeleine: targeting the olfactory pathway

Eric Guedj (1, 2, 3) , Françoise Lazarini (4) , Silvia Morbelli (5) , Mathieu Ceccaldi (6) , Charlotte Hautefort (7) , Aurélie Kas (8) , Thomas Radulesco (9) , Dominique Salmon-Ceron (10) , Carole Eldin (11)

1 CERIMED - Centre Européen de Recherche en Imagerie médicale
2 Service Central de Biophysique et Médecine Nucléaire
3 IMOTHEP - Imagerie MOléculaire pour applications THéranostiques personnalisées
4 Perception et Mémoire / Perception and Memory
5 IRCCS Ospedale Policlinico San Martino [Genoa, Italy]
6 Service de neurologie et de neuropsychologie
7 Hôpital Lariboisière-Fernand-Widal [APHP]
8 LIB - Laboratoire d'Imagerie Biomédicale
9 Service d'Oto-rhino-laryngologie et Chirurgie cervico-faciale [Hôpital de la Conception - APHM]
10 Hôpital Hôtel-Dieu [Paris]
11 VITROME - Vecteurs - Infections tropicales et méditerranéennes

We detail in this Commentary our hypothesis of functional brain dysfunction in patients with long Covid in relation with the impairment of olfactory pathways, and discuss possible implications for the therapeutic management of these patients.

Keywords: (18)F-FDG; Anosmia; COVID-19; Complaints; Emotion; Memory; Olfaction; PET; Rehabilitation; SARS-CoV-2; Stress

Domains: Life Sciences [q-bio]; Life Sciences [q-bio]; Neurons and Cognition [q-bio.NC]

Eric Guedj, Françoise Lazarini, Silvia Morbelli, Mathieu Ceccaldi, Charlotte Hautefort, et al.. Long COVID and the brain network of Proust's madeleine: targeting the olfactory pathway. Clinical Microbiology and Infection, 2021, ⟨10.1016/j.cmi.2021.05.015⟩. ⟨pasteur-03242626⟩