Key result
Viral CNS infections cause acute and chronic neurological diseases, demanding improved vaccines and therapies.
Why the study?
Neurological disorders associated with viral infections are growing with population aging, creating an urgent need to understand how viruses breach CNS defenses and contribute to acute and chronic neurological diseases.
This review highlights the mechanisms and consequences of viral entry into the central nervous system, emphasizing the need for better understanding and treatments for virus-associated neurological diseases.
Does not change clinical practice; leaves open which molecular targets or vaccines will reduce CNS viral disease burden.
Neurological disorders, some of which are associated with viral infections, are growing due to the aging and expanding population. Despite strong defenses of the central nervous system, some viruses have evolved ways to breach them, which often result in dire consequences. In this review, we recount the various ways by which different viruses can enter the CNS, and we describe the consequences of such invasions. Consequences may manifest as acute disease, such as encephalitis, meningitis, or result in long-term effects, such as neuromuscular dysfunction, as occurs in poliomyelitis. We discuss evidence for viral involvement in the causation of well-known chronic neurodegenerative diseases, such as Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, multiple sclerosis, as well as vascular dementia in the elderly. We also describe the approaches currently available to control a few of the neural viral infections. These include antivirals that are effective against human immunodeficiency virus and herpes simplex virus, as well as vaccines valuable for controlling rabies virus, poliomyelitis virus, and some flavivirus infections. There is an urgent need to better understand, at a molecular level, how viruses contribute to acute and, especially, chronic neurological diseases and to develop more precise and effective vaccines and therapies.
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Mielcarska et al. (2025) conducted a review in Neurological disorders associated with viral infections. Viral infections was evaluated. Viral infections of the central nervous system can cause acute and chronic neurological diseases, highlighting an urgent need for improved molecular understanding, vaccines, and therapies.
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