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New Clues Reveal How COVID-19 Invades The Brain And May Cause Long-Term Symptoms

2021-11-04T12:50:09.201Z


New research, although considered preliminary, may shed light on why some people experience ongoing neurological symptoms, such as brain fog or memory problems.


By Erika Edwards -

NBC News

Early research suggests that SARS-CoV-2 [causes the disease COVID-19] can easily enter the brain through a person's nose, infiltrating brain cells where it lurks uncontrollably, possibly causing neurological symptoms long-lasting, such as mental confusion or memory problems.

Two new studies - from the California National Primate Research Center and the Rotman Research Institute in Toronto - suggest that the virus directly infects neurons in the brain, which could offer clues as to why some people suffer from a series of symptoms for a long time. after your initial infection.

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None of the studies, presented Wednesday during a Society for Neuroscience meeting, have been peer-reviewed, and none of them are expected to answer all the questions surrounding long-standing COVID-19 symptoms.

But they come at a time when researchers around the world are urgently trying to learn more about this mysterious and debilitating disease that is estimated to affect at least a third of the more than 46 million people who have been infected in the United States. ., as well as millions more around the world.

Focusing on how the virus invades and affects the brain has the potential to reveal the window of long-term symptoms of coronavirus, a disease that until now doctors have been unable to properly define, diagnose or treat.

“We are still in the phase where it doesn't even have a name.

That's a problem, ”explained Dr. Nir Goldstein, director of the Post-Covid Care and Recovery Center at National Jewish Health in Denver.

Goldstein was not involved in the new investigation.

Invade the brain

The body's natural blood-brain barrier usually does a good job of stopping things like viruses before they can cross into the brain, although viruses can sneak in.

SARS-CoV-2 can do this, as can other viruses, such as viral encephalitis and HIV.

When these gaps occur, immune cells in the brain work to attack the invader.

[9,000 NYC municipal workers are put on unpaid leave for failing to comply with the vaccination mandate]

But one of the new studies presented Wednesday suggests that it is becoming increasingly clear that SARS-CoV-2 may also take a different and less monitored route through the nose, heading directly to the brain.

ENT doctor Sachin Jain checks MRIs before performing surgery to remove mucormycosis from a patient who recovered from COVID-19 at Swaroop Rani Hospital in Allahabad, India on June 5, 2021.Ritesh Shukla / Getty Images

That research, from the California National Primate Research Center, found that rhesus macaques infected with the virus had significant evidence of infection within brain neurons just seven days after exposure.

This occurred especially in older and diabetic animals.

Proving that neurons can become infected would be a key finding.

These brain cells send information from the brain to other parts of the body using electrical impulses.

Because neurons are so important to the normal functioning of the body, the immune system does not want to attack even those that are diseased.

The virus, once it has gotten into neurons, is free to move through the brain's circuits.

"I think this is a much more dangerous infection," says John Morrison, who led the research and is a professor of neurology at the University of California, Davis.

If the virus can travel through brain circuits, he said, "it can reach multiple brain regions that mediate things like cognition and memory, and emotion and mood."

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These are precisely the problems that are so frequently reported among people with a long-standing coronavirus infection.

Previous research on neural infection has been conflicting, and not all experts agree that the findings offer definitive proof.

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During a media briefing at Wednesday's meeting, Dr. Walter Koroshetz, director of the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, noted that he remains unconvinced that SARS-CoV-2 can infect neurons, He added that much more research is needed.

Dr. Greg Vanichkachorn, an occupational medicine specialist who works with longtime coronavirus patients at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, said brain samples taken from people who died of COVID-19 early in the pandemic have not shown largely this type of infection.

However, he added, it is possible that the contagion affected those patients differently.

In fact, not everyone develops the same type of disease.

And it may turn out that people with a less serious illness, even if it lasts for months, become infected differently.

[700,000 white flags honor those killed by COVID-19 in Washington DC]

"I have always thought, from the very beginning of treating patients with this disease, that it is more than just a respiratory condition," said Vanichkachorn, who was not involved in the new research.

"I'm not surprised by these findings," he added.

Not everything is in the head

Another study presented at Wednesday's meeting provided additional evidence for neural infection.

Researchers at the Rotman Research Institute in Toronto used electroencephalography (EEG) to measure the brain's function in terms of its electrical signals.

The study was small, with only 41 patients testing positive for coronavirus and another 14 who had some symptoms but ultimately tested negative.

All had mild illnesses and were never hospitalized.

EEGs showed different brain wave patterns in coronavirus patients that lasted for at least seven months after their initial infection.

Simply put, their brains weren't working as efficiently or effectively, on average, compared to those without COVID-19, noted Allison Sekuler, who led the research and also serves as the Sandra A. Rotman Chair in Cognitive Neuroscience. from high school.

[China closes a Disneyland amusement park with 34,000 visitors inside after detecting a positive case of COVID-19]

Sekuler's research must also be considered early and preliminary.

And the new findings are unlikely to fully explain the types of brain fog and other cognitive problems that people with prolonged coronavirus symptoms report.

However, Sekuler said the results obtained so far "clearly show" changes in brain function over months.

If proven in future analyzes, the results could reassure patients whose loved ones may be skeptical of ongoing and ambiguous symptoms.

"It is very frustrating for many of my patients" who say they have relatives who do not believe that COVID-19 does not exist, Vanichkachorn lamented.

"Patients are often accused of faking or making up all of this to get attention," he added.

Sekuler also dismissed those who claim that the long-lasting symptoms of COVID-19 are "just a matter of the person's head."

"Yes, okay, but that's because the brain controls everything," he said, "the sense of smell, memory, the way you see the world, even the way you feel."

Source: telemundo

All news articles on 2021-11-04

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