{ "abstract": "Neurological complications are among typical clinical manifestations, both during the acute phase of SARS-CoV-2 infection and long-term post-acute COVID-19 sequelae, i.e., Long COVID. A growing body of evidence connects SARS-CoV-2 infection to systemic inflammation, peripheral immune dysregulation, functional alteration of the blood–brain barrier (BBB), neuroinflammatory processes, mitochondrial dysfunction and pathological protein aggregation, all of which are central to the pathogenesis of major neurodegenerative diseases. In this review, we discuss the converging shared underlying molecular mechanisms that link the ‘acute’ SARS-CoV-2 infection that often only lasts for days and ‘chronic’ neurodegenerative diseases that often take decades to develop. We further review human induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs)-derived brain organoid and BBB models for Parkinson’s disease (PD) and Alzheimer’s disease (AD) as well as artificial intelligence (AI)-facilitated knowledge graph methods that are used to hypothesize and validate the potential mechanistic links. We propose that besides the established links between viral infections and neurodegenerative or neuroinflammatory conditions, such as Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) in multiple sclerosis or herpes zoster in AD, SARS-CoV-2 infection might be another important factor driving the future burden of the most common neurodegenerative diseases.\n\nGraphical Abstract: Schematic illustrating the potential link between the progression from SARS-CoV-2 infection and immune dysregulation to the development of Long COVID and eventually the subsequent onset of major neurodegenerative diseases (e.g., Parkinson's disease and Alzheimer's disease).", "abstract_shown": true, "affiliations": [ "Department of Infection and Immunity, Luxembourg Institute of Health (LIH), 29 Rue Henri Koch, L-4354 Esch-Sur-Alzette, Luxembourg", "Barcelonaβeta Brain Research Center (BBRC), Pasqual Maragall Foundation, Carrer de Wellington, 30, 08005 Barcelona, Spain", "Department of Pathology and Experimental Therapeutics, Institute of Neuroscience, Medical School, Pavelló de Govern, Universitat de Barcelona, Carrer de La Feixa Llarga, s/n, 08907 Barcelona, Spain", "Department of Bioinformatics, Fraunhofer Institute for Algorithms and Scientific Computing (SCAI), Schloss Birlinghoven 1, 53754 Sankt Augustin, Germany", "OrganoVIR Labs, Emma Children’s Hospital, Department of Pediatric Infectious Diseases, Amsterdam UMC, Academic Medical Center, Amsterdam Institute for Infection and Immunity, Amsterdam Institute for Infection and Immunity, Amsterdam Institute for Reproduction and Development, University of Amsterdam, Meibergdreef 9, 1105 AZ Amsterdam, The Netherlands", "OrganoVIR Labs, Department of Medical Microbiology, Amsterdam UMC, Academic Medical Center, Amsterdam Institute for Infection and Immunity, University of Amsterdam, Meibergdreef 9, 1105 AZ Amsterdam, The Netherlands", "Emma Center for Personalized Medicine, Amsterdam University Medical Center, University of Amsterdam, Meibergdreef 9, 1105 AZ Amsterdam, The Netherlands", "Fraunhofer Institute for Translational Medicine and Pharmacology ITMP, Discovery Research ScreeningPort, Schnackenburgallee 114, 22525 Hamburg, Germany", "Department of Psychiatry, University of Oxford, Warneford Hospital, Warneford Lane, Headington, Oxford, OX3 7JX UK", "Pharmacoidea Ltd, Derkovits fasor 7-11, H-6726 Szeged, Hungary", "Transversal Translational Medicine, Luxembourg Institute of Health (LIH), 2 Rue Thomas Edison, L-1445 Strassen, Luxembourg", "Causality Biomodels, Kinfra Hi-Tech Park 1, Kalamassery, Cochin, 683503 Kerala India", "Institució Catalana de Recerca i Estudis Avançats (ICREA) and Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Doctor Aiguader, 88, 08003 Barcelona, Spain", "Institute of Evolutionary Biology (UPF-CSIC), Department of Medicine and Life Sciences, IBE, Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Pg Marítim de La Barceloneta, 37, 08003 Barcelona, Spain", "Centre for Genomic Regulation (CRG), The Barcelona Institute for Science and Technology, Doctor Aiguader, 88, 08003 Barcelona, Spain", "Luxembourg Centre for Systems Biomedicine (LCSB), University of Luxembourg, 6 Av. du Swing, L-4367 Belvaux, Luxembourg", "Parkinson Research Clinic, Centre Hospitalier de Luxembourg (CHL), 4 Rue Nicolas Ernest Barblé, L-1210 Luxembourg, Luxembourg" ], "article_type": "review article", "arxiv": null, "author_total": 21, "authors": [ { "affs": [ 0 ], "name": "Feng Q. HeFeng", "orcid": "0000-0003-2657-7361" }, { "affs": [ 1, 2 ], "name": "Andrea Martí-Sarrias", "orcid": "0000-0002-2675-0999" }, { "affs": [ 3 ], "name": "Heval Atas Guvenilir", "orcid": "0000-0003-3180-7010" }, { "affs": [ 4, 5 ], "name": "Renata Baptista Vieira de Sá", "orcid": "0000-0002-6257-6115" }, { "affs": [ 4, 5, 6 ], "name": "Adithya Sridhar", "orcid": "0000-0003-2986-4884" }, { "affs": [ 7 ], "name": "Undine Haferkamp", "orcid": "0000-0003-2893-5847" }, { "affs": [ 1 ], "name": "Fatima El Kach-Marso", "orcid": "0009-0008-6995-5258" }, { "affs": [ 8 ], "name": "Sarah Bauermeister", "orcid": "0000-0001-9463-6971" }, { "affs": [ 9 ], "name": "Anett Hudák", "orcid": "0009-0009-6294-5345" }, { "affs": [ 0 ], "name": "Aristeidis Roubanis", "orcid": "0009-0007-2373-8672" }, { "affs": [ 10 ], "name": "Jochen Ohnmacht", "orcid": "0000-0001-7109-6802" }, { "affs": [ 11 ], "name": "Priya Sethumadhavan", "orcid": "0000-0002-4983-6728" }, { "affs": [ 0 ], "name": "Markus Ollert", "orcid": "0000-0002-8055-0103" }, { "affs": [ 3 ], "name": "Martin Hofmann-Apitius", "orcid": "0000-0001-9012-6720" }, { "affs": [ 1, 12, 13, 14 ], "name": "Arcadi Navarro", "orcid": "0000-0003-2162-8246" }, { "affs": [ 3 ], "name": "Alpha Tom Kodamullil", "orcid": "0000-0001-9896-3531" }, { "affs": [ 7 ], "name": "Ole Pless", "orcid": "0000-0002-1468-316X" }, { "affs": [ 9 ], "name": "Tamas Letoha", "orcid": "0000-0002-6035-4009" }, { "affs": [ 1, 2 ], "name": "Sandra Acosta", "orcid": "0000-0001-6582-2572" }, { "affs": [ 10, 15, 16 ], "name": "Rejko Krüger", "orcid": "0000-0003-4258-6241" }, { "name": "on the behalf of WP4, the COMMUTE Consortium" } ], "bibtex": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/002ndkb49k2xg.bib", "cited_by": 0, "doi": "10.1007/s10571-026-01785-9", "fulltext_url": "https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC13740441/", "id": "002ndkb49k2xg", "issns": [ "0272-4340", "1573-6830" ], "landing_url": "https://doi.org/10.1007/s10571-026-01785-9", "language": "en", "licence": "CC-BY-4.0", "licence_label": "CC BY 4.0", "licence_source": "article", "licence_url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "metadata_licence": null, "native_subjects": [ [ "heading", "Review Paper" ], [ "openalex", "2728|Long-Term Effects of COVID-19" ] ], "openalex": "W7202068779", "pdf_url": null, "pmcid": "PMC13740441", "pmid": "42989040", "published": "2026-08-10", "publisher": "Springer", "ris": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/002ndkb49k2xg.ris", "sources": [ { "first_seen": "2026-11-10T12:21:41Z", "native_id": "PMC13740441", "source": "pmc", "url": "https://doi.org/10.1007/s10571-026-01785-9" } ], "subjects": [ { "field": "medicine", "origin": "openalex:2728|Long-Term Effects of COVID-19", "subfield": "neurology" } ], "title": "Converging pathomechanisms link SARS-CoV-2 infection with major neurodegenerative diseases", "title_text": "Converging pathomechanisms link SARS-CoV-2 infection with major neurodegenerative diseases", "type": "peer-reviewed", "updated_at": "2026-11-10T12:21:41Z", "url": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/002ndkb49k2xg", "venue": "Cellular and Molecular Neurobiology", "versions": [] }