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Your brain on COVID-19
#1
A couple of not-yet-reviewed studies on effects on the brain related to COVID-19 infection.
  "Brain imaging before and after COVID-19 in UK Biobank"
    Posted in August.  Comparison of brain scans of 401 patients (and 384 controls) where brain scans had been done before infection.
    Post-COVID, there was a reduction in grey matter thickness in some areas, markers of tissue damage, decrease in brain size.

Quote:These brain imaging results may be the in vivo hallmarks of a degenerative spread of the disease — or of the virus itself — via olfactory pathways (a possible entry point of the virus to the central nervous system being via the olfactory mucosa), or of neuroinflammatory events due to the infection, or of the loss of sensory input due to anosmia. 


"Brain Injury in COVID-19 is Associated with Autoinflammation and Autoimmunity"

Quote:During hospitalisation, patients with COVID-19 demonstrated elevations of NfL and GFAP in a severity-dependant manner, and there was evidence of ongoing active brain injury at follow-up 4 months later. Raised NfL and GFAP were associated with both elevations of pro-inflammatory cytokines and the presence of autoantibodies; autoantibodies were commonly seen against lung surfactant proteins as well as brain proteins such as myelin associated glycoprotein, but reactivity was seen to a large number of different antigens. Furthermore, a distinct process characterised by elevation of serum total Tau was seen in patients at follow-up, which appeared to be independent of initial disease severity and was not associated with dysregulated immune responses in the same manner as NfL and GFAP.



Stay well.
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#2
My interpretation is that much of the negative impact on the brain ends up being due to the immune response, rather than the virus directly.   Do I interpret that right?
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#3
It is both. One of the articles indicates effects on the areas of the brain that are tied to the olfactory areas where the infection is. So I think that is a direct effect of the virus rather than a general effect of an immune response.
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