MINI REVIEW article
Front. Immunol.
Sec. Multiple Sclerosis and Neuroimmunology
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fimmu.2025.1634383
Rediscovering Parainfectious Encephalopathy in the Post-COVID-19 Era
Provisionally accepted
- Peking Union Medical College Hospital (CAMS), Beijing, China
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The COVID-19 pandemic has unveiled the pivotal role of systemic inflammatory responses in neurological complications, particularly parainfectious encephalopathy. Accumulating evidence has established innate immune overreactiondistinct from direct viral neuro-invasion or autoantibody-mediated reactionas the fundamental mechanism. The clinical manifestations of parainfectious encephalopathy are highly diverse, spanning from mild cases, such as mild encephalopathy with or without a reversible splenial lesion (MERS or ME), to catastrophic syndromes like acute necrotizing encephalopathy (ANE) and febrile infection-related epilepsy syndrome with or without a claustrum lesion (FIRES-C or FIRES). In this article, we summarize the phenotypes, diagnosis, and treatment strategies for parainfectious encephalopathy to enhance clinical recognition and understanding of this re-emerging disorder.
Keywords: Parainfectious encephalopathy, COVID-19, Cytokines, autoinflammatory, innate immunity
Received: 24 May 2025; Accepted: 26 Aug 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Bai, Geng and Guan. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Hongzhi Guan, Peking Union Medical College Hospital (CAMS), Beijing, China
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