Midbrain is the other part of the brain steam besides Pons and Medulla Oblongata, right? I was assuming from what I had read that Midbrain was included as having high ACE2 expression, is that not correct?
I haven't seen any reports of full viral particles crossing the BBB but I assume that research is ongoing and just hasn't been reported yet. Wonder if the headache side effect that is commonly reported for both Moderna and pFizer is related to your last sentence here, since both vaccines are coded to produce spike for the nervous system to develop antibodies against?
If you are conducting any SARS-CoV-2 research, I'd be interested in chatting via PM. Our lab deals with many different varieties of spike protein but we have safeguards in place to make sure they are handled carefully. Thankfully we don't deal with any active virus, I don't want to deal with pain of running a BSL 3 lab.