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Researchers to Study Link Between COVID-19, Cocaine Use, and Neurological Damage
Researchers at the Lewis Katz School of Medicine at Temple University in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, have been awarded a grant by the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) to study the mechanisms underlying the effect of COVID-19 on the blood-brain barrier and potential interactions between the virus and cocaine.
The grant is projected to provide up to $2.5 million over 5 years.
“People with substance use disorders are highly susceptible to infection with SARS-CoV-2 and frequently have more neurological symptoms,” study co-principal investigator Ellen Unterwald, PhD, chair and professor of the Department of Neural Sciences and director and professor of the Center for Substance Abuse Research at the Katz School, said in a news release. “We suspect that even just occasional use of cocaine may alter the blood-brain barrier in ways that exacerbate the effects of SARS-CoV-2 infection.”
With COVID-19’s impact on blood-brain barrier function being similar to that of cocaine and other psychostimulants, questions have been raised as to whether the virus inflicts greater central nervous system damage in the presence of psychostimulants. Researchers working on the study are particularly interested in COVID-19’s spike protein, which is essential for the virus to enter the central nervous system. The protein may have a common intracellular point of interaction with cocaine.
“Our findings are likely to have implications for the identification of new therapeutic approaches for COVID-19 in individuals who use cocaine,” Dr Unterwald said.
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