COVID-19 associated with encephalomyeloradiculitis and positive anti-aquaporin-4 antibodies: Cause or coincidence?

Neurologic complications are being recognized as important outcomes of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). Pathogenesis is varied and incompletely understood, and may include neuroinvasion, indirect post-infectious neuroinflammation, and cerebrovascular pathologies. We present a case of COVID-19-related encephalomyeloradiculitis with clinical and magnetic resonance imaging characteristics of neuromyelitis optica spectrum disorders that was associated with anti-aquaporin-4 antibodies.

Lack of galectin-3 speeds Wallerian degeneration by altering TLR and pro-inflammatory cytokine expressions in injured sciatic nerve.

Wallerian degeneration (WD) comprises a series of events that includes activation of non-neuronal cells and recruitment of immune cells, creating an inflammatory milieu that leads to extensive nerve fragmentation and subsequent clearance of the myelin debris, both of which are necessary prerequisites for effective nerve regeneration. Previously, we documented accelerated axon regeneration in animals lacking galectin-3 (Gal-3), a molecule associated with myelin clearance. To clarify the mechanisms underlying this enhanced regeneration, we focus here on the early steps of WD following sciatic nerve crush in Gal-3(-/-) mice.