Experts from Germany and the United States have shown that the coronavirus can affect some human neurons. It has been established that this is the cause of the neurological postcoid syndrome. These days, those who have recovered feel depressed, as well as depression and fatigue. This condition could last for months in patients.
Last year, scientists have already said that there are isolated cases of clouding of consciousness in patients with coronavirus infection in the world. It has been suggested that COVID-19 may influence the formation of neural connections and cause early dementia.
Now scientists from Stanford University in the United States and Saar University in Germany have been able to examine exactly what effect the coronavirus has on the brain. They examined people who died from the coronavirus. For comparison, brain tissue samples were taken from those who died for other reasons, including the flu, according to the KP.RU website.
As a method, technologies were used to analyze the composition of RNA in tissues. Such data directly reflect the work of cells during the fatal process that caused death.
As a result, during the study, no RNA traces of the virus were found in the brain. Nevertheless, it turned out that with a severe course of infection, the choroid plexus of the brain becomes one of the central sites of the lesion. Negative changes also occur in the patient’s brain. So, lesions were found in microglia and astrocytes – cells responsible for the nutrition and structure of neurons.
It is noted that the changes in these cells resemble those that occur in neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s disease. This means that coronavirus infection can cause diseases that are characterized by the gradual death of nerve cells.
And COVID-19 also affects certain groups of neurons that are responsible for such abilities as memory, thinking, learning ability. This overlaps with similar changes in neuronal groups in schizophrenia and depression, noted psychiatrist Viktor Lebedev. According to him, the data collected is mostly indirect, but nevertheless it is a progress in the study.
Earlier, doctors recorded bone destruction in patients with long-term COVID
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