Lionel Gougelot, edited by Juline Garnier
modified to
11:26 a.m., March 23, 2022
Even after two years of epidemic, the virus of the Covid-19 remains very mysterious. At the National Institute of Health and Medical Research (Inserm), researchers from Lille have started work on the human brains of patients who died during the coronavirus epidemic. After the respiratory tract and the heart, they seek to demonstrate whether the virus has an effect on the aging of the brain and the fertility of those affected.
The “Lille neuroscience and cognition” section of the scientists was able to highlight the fact that the virus was also likely to “kill” certain protective cells of the brain and therefore to weaken it. An attack by the virus that could cause cognitive impairment and neurodegenerative diseases in some people, with potential effects on male fertility.
In a refrigerated room in the laboratory, Florent, a student participating in the research, shows a small piece of human brain bathed in formaldehyde. “It’s a fragment of hypothalamus, it’s our area of interest and research, the tissue is intact, we’re going to freeze it and we’re going to cut it into 14-micron thick slices,” he explains.
Possible weakening of neurons
In his hand, there is a sample from a patient who died of Covid-19 during the first wave of the epidemic, which will make it possible to detect the presence of the virus. “It is on these extremely thin sections of the brain that we are able to identify the nature of the cells which have or have not been infected by the virus”, explains Vincent Prévot, research director at Inserm.
Infected cells which, even in mild Covid, could weaken the neurons, and lead to poorer oxygenation of the brain. “It may be that the brain of the patients has been somewhat weakened and in which case perhaps the patients who have had this Covid-19 will have a brain that will age less well and this may predispose people to developing diseases of aging and possibly dementias such as Alzheimer’s, but only time can tell.”
Sequelae from which vaccinated persons should be spared
In the coming months, patients hospitalized in Lille will be monitored regularly. The researchers will give them cognitive tests to determine what state they are in. They will also be given MRI scans to examine their brain structure and activity. At the same time, in this project funded by the Foundation for Medical Research, the Lille team is also exploring the consequences of Covid on male fertility, the virus possibly having effects on reproductive neurons.
“We are at the very beginning of our investigations3, explains Vincent Prévot. charge of patients in the future.” For the moment, everything remains to be discovered about these possible effects of the virus.