How COVID-19 Can Damage the Brain

Researchers at Stanford University have identified brain inflammation, genetic alterations, signs of circuit failure, and the mysterious “brain fog” and psychological struggle reported by many patients in people killed by COVID-19. I found a clue.

The study also reveals an unforgettable similarity between the brains of people killed by COVID and other degenerative conditions such as Alzheimer’s disease and Parkinson’s disease.

Tony Wiskorey, a professor of neurology and neuroscience at Stanford University, said:This study, a collaboration with German scientists, is published in this week’s issue. Journal Nature..

The team found no evidence that the virus had invaded the brain and infected it, Wyss-Coray said. Perhaps neurological symptoms are caused by the virus staying around the brain in a tissue that acts as the “blood-brain barrier” for gatekeeping.

Alternatively, he said, the effects may be indirect as a result of the body’s excessive immune defense against the virus.

COVID-19 is a disease that mainly attacks the lungs, but it also has embarrassing psychological effects. Patients often experience neurological problems such as headaches, delirium, “brain fog”, dizziness, malaise, and loss of smell.Reportedly one patient, a woman in her mid-50s Was suffering from psychosis, See a lion and a monkey at her house. The disease can also cause a stroke.

Patients welcomed the study and said it showed that the so-called “long COVID” psychological sacrifice was real.

“The fact that so many people are experiencing neurological problems, this is the discovery we expected,” he said. Karin Bishof, 31, Boca Raton, Florida, was infected with COVID-19 in March 2020 while working as a firefighter and emergency medical personnel.

“Some of the most commonly reported symptoms among” long-distance carriers, “including me, follow chronic daily headaches, amnesia, brain fog, word recall problems, adjustments, and commands. Ability, word switching, “said co-founder Bishof.of Long COVID Alliance.. “In addition, throwing insomnia, chronic relentless malaise, and general pain, which has no explanation or solution yet, makes it very clear that this is a systemic inflammatory condition.”

Hunter HowardA Dallas-based healthcare entrepreneur who was infected with the virus in Colorado in March 2020 and is now chair of the Global Pandemic Coalition said: Share what they are experiencing. “

Postmortem research to learn how disease works on the brain has been a pillar of neurological research for over a century. However, donated brains are difficult to find under normal conditions, especially during a pandemic.

The risk of infection requires laborious safety precautions during autopsy. The medical system is emphasized. It is also difficult to get consent to donate the body for research, as the patient may be unconscious and intubated. Families are often shocked and saddened.

“We have a large lab here in Stanford and when this pandemic happened we weren’t allowed to work anymore,” said Wiskorey. “We wanted to do something for this in order for this terrible illness to try to understand it.”

Unable to find a local brain, he turned to a colleague at Saarland University in Germany for help. Eight cherry-sized brain fragments stored for international transport, one at a time, were shipped to Stanford for analysis.

They were compared to 12 normal brains. In the COVID-19 brain, the team found abnormal patterns of gene activity in all major cell types. Many of them are associated with the inflammatory process.

They also found signs of distress in the neural circuits of the cerebral cortex, a brain region that plays an important role in memory and reasoning. There was an imbalance between the two types of neurons, excitatory and inhibitory. This pattern is also found in neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s disease.

And they found that the brain was infiltrated by immune cells called macrophages. Macrophages act like garbage trucks, wandering around, attacking and removing pathogens. In a healthy brain, these immune cells are much less common.

“When something unexpected happens, these cells are activated and produce all sorts of factors that create what we call inflammation,” Wyss-Coray said.

The Stanford Project continues to grow research on problematic brain tissue in patients with COVID-19. Researchers at the National Institutes of Health have discovered damage caused by thinning and leakage of cerebrovascular disease. A Japanese team has detected cerebral edema. Another study described patients with causes of myelin degradation, neuronal insulation, and multiple sclerosis.

Even if no active infection is found in brain tissue, neuroinflammation can still be caused by active viral infections elsewhere in the body, Jaime, director of science and medical outreach.・ Selzer says. #MEAction, an advocacy group for people with myalgic encephalomyelitis / chronic fatigue syndrome. A long COVID can mimic its helpless and mysterious illness.