‘Corona leads to brain damage due to an exaggerated immune reaction’ | Inland

The disease caused by the coronavirus can cause the immune system in the brain to run wild. The research was published Saturday in the leading medical journal The Lancet Microbe, Nieuwsuur reports.

Pathologist Paul van der Valk and his team studied the brains of eleven patients who died of Covid-19. In ten of the eleven he saw that the disease had left clear marks in the brain. For example, so-called T lymphocytes (immune cells) were discovered that do not belong in the brain.

The abnormalities were found throughout the brain and spinal cord in the deceased corona patients. “These are cells that are normally kept from the brain,” says Van der Valk. “But in the Covid-19 patients, we saw that they had left the bloodstream and entered the brain tissue. Then I know as a pathologist: something is very wrong here. ”

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