Publications by authors named "E Levavasseur"
Article Synopsis
- A study involving 20 COVID-19 cases identified cerebral microangiopathy in six patients, marked by changes in white matter and small artery diseases as seen on MRI.
- The condition featured perivascular alterations such as vacuolization, macrophage clusters, and large axonal swellings, suggesting blood-brain barrier disruption without evidence of direct viral presence in the brain.
- Detection of the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein in brain endothelial cells, particularly within the Golgi apparatus, indicates a unique interaction that might affect vascular permeability and contribute to long-term neurological effects of COVID-19.
Article Synopsis
- Human prion diseases are severe neurodegenerative conditions with sporadic, infectious, and genetic forms, with the E200K mutation being a common genetic variant of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, which has no existing treatments.
- Researchers created a genetic model using the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans to study the effects of the E200K prion protein mutation on neuronal health and behavior, revealing neurodegeneration and misfolding patterns.
- This model helped identify five existing FDA-approved compounds that could combat the harmful effects of the E200K prion protein, advancing the research in prion disease therapies.
Unlike variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease prions, sporadic Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease prions have been shown to be difficult to amplify in vitro by protein misfolding cyclic amplification (PMCA). We assessed PMCA of pathological prion protein (PrP) from 14 human sCJD brain samples in 3 substrates: 2 from transgenic mice expressing human prion protein (PrP) with either methionine (M) or valine (V) at position 129, and 1 from bank voles. Brain extracts representing the 5 major clinicopathological sCJD subtypes (MM1/MV1, MM2, MV2, VV1, and VV2) all triggered seeded PrP amplification during serial PMCA with strong seed- and substrate-dependence.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAlthough COVID-19 is considered to be primarily a respiratory disease, SARS-CoV-2 affects multiple organ systems including the central nervous system (CNS). Yet, there is no consensus on the consequences of CNS infections. Here, we used three independent approaches to probe the capacity of SARS-CoV-2 to infect the brain.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAlthough COVID-19 is considered to be primarily a respiratory disease, SARS-CoV-2 affects multiple organ systems including the central nervous system (CNS). Yet, there is no consensus whether the virus can infect the brain, or what the consequences of CNS infection are. Here, we used three independent approaches to probe the capacity of SARS-CoV-2 to infect the brain.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF