In a new study from Northwestern Medicine, researchers found biomarkers of neuron damage and brain inflammation in the blood are associated with brain function changes in both hospitalized COVID-19 patients and people with long COVID.
They found combined blood biomarker evidence of damage to neurons and activation of cells—indicating brain inflammation—was linked to symptoms of anxiety in people with long COVID.
The findings could prove important because it points to a real biological basis for long COVID symptoms, which are sometimes dismissed in people who experience a myriad of physical and psychological ills after recovery from COVID.
In the study, the team matched cognitive and quality-of-life measures in addition to the typically studied COVID symptoms like shortness of breath, fatigue, and brain fog in people with and without COVID-19.
The 64 participants in the study included healthy people, as well as people who were hospitalized with COVID-19 with the acute brain dysfunction known as encephalopathy, the most severe neurologic sign of COVID-19 with symptoms ranging from confusion to coma.
The study also included non-hospitalized COVID long-haulers who were treated at the hospital’s Neuro COVID-19 Clinic.
The researchers believe the most noteworthy finding is that they were able to look at a marker of nerve cell [neuron] damage and a marker of activation of supporting cells in the brain called “glial cells” which are elevated in other diseases of the brain such as multiple sclerosis.
If you care about long COVID, please read studies about what causes long COVID symptoms, and two doses of COVID-19 vaccine may protect against long COVID.
For more information about COVID and your health, please see recent studies about what is long COVID and how do I avoid it, and results showing this drug may relieve painful ‘long covid’ symptoms.
The study is published in Neurology, Neuroimmunology & Neuroinflammation and was conducted by Barbara Hanson et al.
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