My last post about being sick with #COVID19 attracted much attention, good and bad. For those who wished me well, thank you very much! I have already recovered my sense of smell and taste and am improving from Covid symptoms every day. For the denialists who took precious time of their lives to come to my post and say that the virus does not exist or that it is just a common cold, just a message: I directly see the virus in the brain using microscopy, and you can see it as well in the video I made below. Viral protein (red, viral nucleocapsid) is found mainly inside neurons (blue, neun) in the olfactory cortex. Glial cells such as astrocytes (white, gfap) and microglia (green, iba1( are attacking these infected neurons, trying to slow down the viral spreading across the brain. Although beneficial, this mechanism also generates more neuroinflammatory propagation, with additional collateral damage to the circuits besides the death of infected neurons. You can deny as much as you want that this is happening, but science is here clearly proving what is going on. Our first study was published last year: cell.com/cell-reports/fullte… We are currently also looking at how vaccines can modulate this type of neuronal damage. So far, it seems that, although not able to prevent neuronal infection, vaccination reduces the neuroinflammatory response generated by the immune system in the brain. More to come soon! #FluorescenceFriday