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People who die of severe Covid-19 have brain abnormalities that resemble the changes seen in Alzheimer’s disease: a buildup of a protein called tau within brain cells and abnormal amounts of the protein beta-amyloid that accumulates in amyloid plaques, small studies have found.
In the
columbia university, Andrew Marks and his colleagues studied the brains of 10 patients with Covid-19 and found defects in proteins called ryanodine receptors that control the passage of calcium into cells. In Alzheimer’s disease, defective ryanodine receptors are linked to the accumulation of tau in so-called neurofibrillary tangles.
These tangles were present at high levels in the brains of Covid-19 patients, the team reported.
Columbia Thursday in «
Alzheimer’s & Dementia».
Other research teams have searched for, and found, abnormal levels of amyloid in the brains of Covid-19 patients, according to reports published online ahead of peer review at
bioRxiv and on the preprint server
«The Lancet».
In all the studies, the patients had experienced the most severe forms of Covid-19. If similar changes occur in the brains of patients with milder disease, that could help explain the “brain fog” associated with prolonged Covid, Marks said.
Patients with severe Covid-19 could have a increased risk of dementia later in life, but it’s too early to tell, he added. His advice: get a booster shot and avoid the virus. “If you get Covid-19 you probably won’t die, but we still don’t know much about the long-term effects.”