Recent studies reveal the effects of mild cases of Covid-19 on the brain.
REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, JAKARTA — Recent studies reveal the effects of mild cases of Covid-19 on the brain. The findings were obtained by scanning hundreds of patients before and after being infected with the corona virus.
Research shows the impact of Covid-19 on the brain is significant and potentially damaging. However, experts do not yet know whether this effect also causes long-term cognitive deficits.
So far, the neurological effects of Covid-19 have been found, including brain fog, fatigue, and impaired sense of taste and smell. What is not yet known is the direct effect of SARS-CoV-2 infection on brain tissue.
Most published studies on the effects of SARS-CoV-2 on the brain examine tissue taken from deceased patients. No studies have yet offered a comparative analysis of brain imaging before and after contracting COVID-19. New study with participants from the UK published in the journal Nature this is the pioneer.
The researchers focused on data from 401 subjects, with brain imaging performed before and after testing positive for Covid-19. The second brain scan lasted an average of 141 days after the initial diagnosis of Covid-19.
The results of these scans were compared with a control group of 384 subjects. Each control subject was matched to the first group in terms of age, gender, ethnicity, and scan interval.
“Our longitudinal analysis revealed a significant and deleterious impact associated with SARS-CoV-2,” the researchers wrote in the new study. New AtlasSaturday (12/3/2022).
The effects detected were mainly influences on the limbic system and olfactory cortex. There was a change in the size of the diffusion representing tissue damage in the functional areas connected to the piriform cortex, olfactory tubercle, and anterior olfactory nucleus.
Another effect was a reduction in thickness in the left parahippocampal gyrus and lateral orbitofrontal cortex in participants infected with SARS-CoV-2. With these results, the study is considered important for studying the pandemic.
However, the findings raise many new questions. It is not known whether the observed brain changes are permanent and whether the effects are correlated with lasting behavioral or cognitive changes.
University of Edinburgh researcher Alan Carson, who was not involved in the study, highlighted that most of the brain changes recorded in the study were related to areas that regulate the sense of smell. Most likely the plasticity of the brain in response to the impact of the virus on the nasal cells.
Some investigators suggest that the persistent and widespread systemic effect of SARS-CoV-2 infection is due to the autoimmune activity that remains after acute infection. The immune system overworks when the virus attacks and inflammation starts to damage other organs.
Another hypothesis suggests the virus can directly infiltrate the brain and damage brain cells. Smelling and spinal cord regeneration expert James St John calls it a plausible hypothesis that could lead to the possibility that Covid-19 may accelerate the development of neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s.
“It’s still unclear whether the SARS-CoV-2 virus can enter the brain, but the virus can destroy the nerve cells responsible for the sense of smell, then trigger a series of events that lead to further pathology in the brain,” said St John.
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