Wednesday 02 November 2022, 18:31
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Sars-Cov-2 virus can activate the same inflammatory response in the brain as Parkinson’s disease, inducing a potential risk of neurodegenerative disease in the future, according to a new study by University of Queensland scientists, Xinhua reports.
“We studied the effect of the virus on the brain’s immune cells, the ‘microglia’, which are the key cells involved in the progression of brain diseases such as Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s, ”said Trent Woodruff, co-author and professor of pharmacology at the University of Queensland on Tuesday.
Using blood from a human donor, the researchers cultured the microglia in the laboratory and infected the cells the SARS-CoV-2 virus. They found that the cells “actually got angry, activating the same pathway that Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s proteins can activate in the disease, the inflammasome,” Woodruff added.
According to the study published in the journal Molecular Psychiatry by the Nature portfolio, the spike protein of the COVID-19 virus was sufficient to activate and trigger the inflammasome, which could initiate a chronic and prolonged process of killing neurons.
“So if someone is already predisposed to Parkinson’s disease, having COVID-19 could be like pouring more fuel on that ‘fire’ in the brain,” Woodruff warned.
Woodruff told Xinhua that the team is interested in continuing to investigate different variants of the protein peak on microglia, because he believes that “some more recent variants may have an even stronger answer”.
Examining the long-term impact of a previous COVID-19 infection on the brain is also the next goal for the researchers.
“We are interested in infecting mice with the virus, letting them heal, and then monitoring the mice for motor and cognitive symptoms as they age. We can also induce Parkinson’s disease in mice to see if they have an exacerbated response after they recover from the infection.” , added the scientist.
