Molecular Mechanisms of Cognitive Dysfunction from COVID-19 Infection and Other Respiratory Viruses
A special issue of International Journal of Molecular Sciences (ISSN 1422-0067). This special issue belongs to the section "Molecular Pathology, Diagnostics, and Therapeutics".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 20 November 2025 | Viewed by 1018
Special Issue Editor
Special Issue Information
Dear colleagues,
On May 5th, 2023, the WHO officially ended the Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC) for the COVID-19 pandemic. Although the pandemic is considered to be “over,” there are many who continue to feel the lasting effects of COVID-19. Post-COVID-19 syndrome, or "long COVID," has emerged as a real concern for the young and old, and the infection and reinfection rates for COVID variants keep this threat looming large. Most notable of post-COVID symptoms are those related to fatigue and cognitive dysfunction. The result of these symptoms on quality of life ranges from reduced productivity to complete dependency. Therefore, it has become important to understand the link between viral infections and cognitive dysfunction, and work towards solutions.
The explosion of research stimulated by the pandemic has led to rapid advances in our knowledge of the molecular mechanisms of COVID-19, from the cytokine storm to disruption of the blood-brain barrier in patients exhibiting post-COVID symptoms. Interestingly, these cognitive symptoms are also present after infection from other respiratory viruses, suggesting that there may be a common underlying mechanism. Synthesizing our knowledge of this mechanism and investigating the shared mechanisms of COVID, we may be able to answer questions about post-COVID symptoms before obtaining years of longitudinal follow-up data. For example, evidence from shared mechanisms of other respiratory infections may help us determine the likelihood of post-COVID symptoms being permanent, reversible, or reoccurring by nature.
In this Special Issue, entitled “Molecular mechanisms of cognitive dysfunction from COVID-19 infection and other respiratory viruses”, we aim to present research and theoretical papers addressing all these points relating to respiratory viral infections. I believe that this Special Issue of the International Journal of Molecular Sciences will be greatly beneficial to serve our continuing understanding of this disease.
Dr. Abdullah Mosabbir
Guest Editor
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Keywords
- long COVID
- post-COVID
- cognitive dysfunction
- virus
- cognition
- brain
- viral infection
- virol-ogy
- RNA
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