How Covid-19 damages the brain

Issuing: November 7, 2020-16:48

After her discharge hospital After the symptoms of are treated COVID-19, 55 years old British The woman began to hallucinate at her house, watching monkeys and lions. She began to suffer from the persecution complex and was forced to take off her jacket repeatedly.

She is one of 43 patients with severe neurological complications of Covid-19 studied by British scientists and was published in a neurological publication on 8 July. brain.. This report reinforces the growing scientific consensus on the serious brain damage that coronaviruses can cause.

“We had to wait for the virus to come from China to Europe. Before Italian scientists talk about its neurological effects,” said the Pasteur Institute, a renowned medical research center. Deputy Director of Neuroscience, Pierre Marie Raid in Paris. At the beginning of the pandemic, the first notable finding in this area was the loss of taste and odor among people suffering from coronaviruses.

“Influence on the brain”

The new study “allows a clearer view of the types of neurological damage caused by Covid-19,” Leldo said. There are various problems that it creates. British scientists behind the brain research show that stroke, different types of encephalitis, ADEM (acute inflammatory disease of the central nervous system that usually affects children), and Guillain-Barre syndrome (which attacks the nervous system) Cause conditions and paralysis).

These complications appear to affect only a small number of people infected with the virus, but occur 6 to 14 days after the onset of the more common Covid-19 symptoms such as dry cough and fever. There is a possibility.

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These findings suggest that Covid-19 tends to be “neurotropic, or attacking neurons,” continued Leldo. The most well-known neurotropic virus is rabies, which attacks the central nervous system almost exclusively. The fact that Covid-19 is predominantly a respiratory disease does not preclude having this neurological aspect.

“We know that there are receptors in the respiratory tract that allow Covid-19 to enter cells, but they also exist in cells in other organs, such as the brain and liver.” Virology Professor Nicholas Locker said. Surrey University. “It’s very common for viruses to move, so it’s no surprise that Covid-19 causes brain damage,” he continued.

Covid-19 is not the first case of a virus that attacks the brain. One of the world’s most prevalent pandemics, the 1918-19 Spanish flu caused serious neurological complications. Similarly, Zika virus has been shown to move in the blood and cause forms of brain damage such as microcephaly. “Not enough, but there are signs of spillover in the brain,” Lledo said during past coronavirus pandemics, such as SARS in 2002 and MERS in 2012, to show a sufficiently clear picture. “

Possible “chronic” consequences

What surprised British researchers was that some of the inpatients were “severe in neurological symptoms but relatively weak in lung symptoms,” Lerdo said. This was especially the case for women in their 60s already admitted to the hospital after a series of hallucinations and already suffering from the symptoms of cognitive decline. The damage to her brain was worse than the damage to her lungs.

However, UK studies have given no indication as to whether people who are asymptomatic or who have only mild symptoms are at risk of developing serious neurological complications. “The researchers were already investigating what was happening in highly sick patients,” Locker said. The sample size was too small for scientists to evaluate in this regard.

The fact that some of these patients developed neurological complications up to two weeks after the symptoms of Covid-19 were added, “to take this risk into account, monitor patients more closely after admission. Need to be done”.

The study was also called upon to further investigate the brain effects of Covid-19. Rocker argued that “whether the symptoms of Covid-19 worsen for people who may develop neurodegenerative disease” should be investigated.

In doing so, scientists decide whether to include such people in a virus-protected group because of their high health risks such as diabetes and respiratory illness.

The big fear the study raises is that “covid-19 may have chronic neurological consequences,” Leldo said. He said, “For some of us still mysterious reasons, some people seem to have recurrent certain symptoms of Covid-19.” One of the major risks, particularly under consideration in pan-European studies today, is that coronaviruses can cause chronic fatigue syndrome.

This article Original in french..