The Dark Legacy of the Pandemic: Postponed COVID Makes the Brain Decay Faster
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The coronavirus pandemic will cause a surge in neurodegenerative diseases in the world – this is the opinion of many experts around the world. Interest in them resurfaced in connection with Hollywood actor Bruce Willis, who was diagnosed with frontotemporal dementia at a not so advanced age (67 years). The scientific journal Cell has published a large overview of the neurogenerative diseases that people will soon encounter with increasing frequency: today there is little doubt that covid, even in a mild form, causes the brain to degenerate faster than nature suggests.
As laboratory diagnostics doctor Alexander Solovyov explains, neurodegenerative diseases are a group of neurological disorders that negatively affect the lives of millions of people around the world: “These diseases are manifested by a progressive loss of neurons, which leads to impaired memory, speech, cognition, feelings and the ability to move. More and more new data is being published about the negative impact of COVID-19 on the immune system, the damage to the nervous system by the SARS-CoV-2 virus and the stimulation of autoimmune processes by it – scientists expect an increase in neurodegenerative conditions after the pandemic.
Alas, dementia (one of the most common neurodegenerative disorders) has become one of the main problems of our rapidly aging civilization in recent years. In the old days, people simply did not live up to it, but today 36 million people in the world suffer from it, and by 2050 this army is predicted to grow to 130 million. By the way, people over 80 years old have become the fastest growing population on the planet – and every second person at this age has cognitive impairment.
The development of cognitive impairment, especially in the elderly, against the backdrop of post-COVID is terribly high. So, if in the usual case, the transition from a mild stage of mental disability in dementia occurs in 7 years, and from moderate to severe in 6, then with post-covid syndrome, the whole process can take several months.
As the authors of the publication in Cell note, decades of research have identified genetic and other risk factors (age, lifestyle, environmental exposure) that cause the development of this group of diseases. The pathologies underlying many of these diseases begin many years before the onset of clinical symptoms. And by the time symptoms appear, significant neuronal loss has already occurred. Therefore, all over the world today, a search is underway for biomarkers that would help detect these diseases at stages when there are no alarming symptoms yet.
Some of these biomarkers are already known. For example, these are indicators of neuroinflammation in blood plasma, as well as markers of neuronal damage. Last year, researchers found that many hospitalized patients with COVID-19 had markedly elevated levels. Doctors announced this at the International Conference of the Association for the Study of Alzheimer’s Disease. Today, a clear link between SARS-CoV-2 infection and dementia associated with Alzheimer’s disease has already been identified: in patients with Alzheimer’s disease, the risk of death from covid was twice as high, and they endure the disease more severely (they have more seizures, hypoxic damage and ischemic stroke). ). The same group turned out to have worse biomarkers of neuronal damage and neuroinflammation, including tau protein (and this is one of the key markers of Alzheimer’s disease). Covid causes inflammation in the brain, which leads to an increase in the level of tau protein, scientists conclude.
The mechanisms by which COVID-19 affects cognitive dysfunction are unclear, but inflammation, including neuroinflammation, likely plays a leading role, the scientists say. But SARS-CoV-2 infection itself dramatically increases the risk of developing dementia in the future: a lot of research has already been done on this topic in the world. The term covid-associated cognitive disorder, a precursor to dementia, has even begun to be used.
Recently, a group of researchers from the University of California at San Francisco obtained data suggesting that “brain fog” (cognitive impairment that occurs during both COVID and post-COVID syndrome) is a real neurological pathology, and not the subjective feelings of patients . A publication on this topic was published in the Annals of Clinical and Translational Neurology. The analysis included adults with confirmed SARS-CoV-2 infection not requiring hospitalization who are being followed up as part of the COVID-19 long-term impact study.
Participants were asked in detail about their history of COVID-19, history, lifestyle, pre-existing cognitive risk factors, medications taken, and cognitive symptoms after COVID-19 onset. They also underwent individual cognitive function testing. More than half of the patients reported at least one cognitive symptom as part of the early phase of the post-COVID syndrome. Compared to controls, participants with cognitive post-COVID had more pre-existing cognitive risk factors (these include hypertension and diabetes, mild cognitive impairment, vascular dementia, history of traumatic brain injury, anxiety, depression, stimulant use, and attention deficit disorder). ). In patients with symptoms of cognitive post-Covid, various anomalies were found in the composition of the cerebrospinal fluid (most often, an increase in protein levels). “Brain fog”, therefore, is not just “a phenomenon of the mind or something psychological”, it has real pathophysiological foundations, the authors of the publication believe.
There are several other studies that have tried to explain the nature of the effect of coronavirus on the brain. So far, their conclusions cannot be considered final, which, however, does not negate their importance. For example, a mouse study conducted by a Yale University team with Professor Akiko Iwasaki demonstrated the damaging effects of SARS-CoV-2 on the nervous system even with a mild infection. In particular, the loss of myelin (a substance involved in the transmission of nerve impulses) and oligodendrocytes (CNS cells). As the scientists note, similar brain damage and associated cognitive impairments develop during cancer therapy (and are called the “chemical brain”). A similar study was conducted by Dutch scientists on juvenile monkeys, assessing the effects of mild SARS-CoV-2 infection on the brain. They concluded that coronavirus infection caused T-cell infiltration in the brain parenchyma and the formation of Lewy bodies. Lewy bodies are a pathoanatomical sign of neurodegenerative dementia, manifested by the clinic of Parkinson’s syndrome and progressive cognitive impairment.
Well, it’s absolutely sad that a huge number of studies indicate the rapid aging of the brain in post-COVID syndrome. One showed that the IQ of covid survivors declined on average by as much as 10 points in the ten months following infection, a decline that is typical of aging between 50 and 70 years of age. The conclusion suggests itself that SARS-CoV-2 is a trigger mechanism for the onset of the rapid degradation of intelligence and cognitive functions.
Be that as it may, the pandemic poses problems for all of humanity, solutions to which will need to be sought in the very near future. So far, no one really knows how to prevent the impact of the virus on the intellect and how to deal with its devastating consequences.
Newspaper headline:
Will everyone become dumber from covid?
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