Coronavirus: Research Finds Possible Link of Covid-19 with Alzheimer’s Disease Later | Health

Researchers are trying to understand why some COVID-19 survivors suffer from “brain fog” and other problems that can last for months, and new findings suggest worrying overlaps with Alzheimer’s disease.

A study of elderly people in Argentina found a surprising amount of dementia-like memory and thinking changes for at least six months after a bout with the coronavirus, regardless of the severity of their infection. Other researchers have found proteins linked to Alzheimer’s disease in the blood of New Yorkers whose COVID-19 triggered brain symptoms very early on.

The preliminary results were reported at a meeting of the Alzheimer’s Association on Thursday. Experts point out that much more research is needed – and ongoing – to say whether COVID-19 could increase the risk of Alzheimer’s or other brain problems later in life, or if people eventually recover.

The possibilities “are real and disturbing,” but it is too early to know “if this will really lead to long-term cognitive change,” warned Dr. Richard Hodes, director of the National Institute on Aging.

His agency was not involved in Thursday’s research, but has started its own large study to try and find out.

“If you’ve had COVID, it doesn’t necessarily mean you’ll be impacted,” agreed Heather Snyder of the Alzheimer’s Association.

But protecting the brain from COVID-19 offers yet another reason to get vaccinated, she added.

Some clues about the risk come from a study of around 300 people in Argentina’s Jujuy province that kept a health registry of anyone tested for the virus, whether or not they had symptoms. Researchers combed through the registry of people aged 60 and over who had no records of brain disorders before the pandemic and asked if they would undergo cognitive testing.

“It’s pretty scary, if I have to put it bluntly,” said Dr. Gabriel de Erausquin of the University of Texas Health Sciences Center at San Antonio, who is leading the study.

Between three and six months after their coronavirus infection, about 20% of older people had problems with short-term memory. And 34% had a deeper impairment, including difficulty finding words and difficulty with long-term memory, what de Erausquin called a “dementia-like syndrome.”

The severity of their COVID-19 did not predict problems – instead, those most at risk had persistent loss of smell. This loss is often temporary with COVID-19. But de Erausquin noted that the olfactory region of the brain is directly linked to areas critical for memory, and a loss of smell is sometimes an early sign of degenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s or Parkinson’s disease.

The study will follow participants for three years to see how they fare. While early findings focused on the elderly, de Erausquin said there is further evidence that lingering problems in young COVID-19 survivors tend to focus more on the ability to focus.

Researchers at New York University-Langone Health took a different approach, testing the blood of more than 300 elderly people hospitalized for COVID-19. About half showed new neurological symptoms such as confusion as part of their coronavirus infection, and the study found an increase in their blood levels of proteins linked to inflammation of the nervous system, damage to brain cells. and Alzheimer’s disease.

This shows that the brain responds to injury, but it will take time to find out whether the abnormal levels really signal Alzheimer’s-like changes or are a temporary blip, said Dr Eliezer Masliah of the National Institute. on aging, which was not involved in the research. He noted that a protein that goes wrong during Alzheimer’s disease also has a normal role in the brain, to defend against infection.

Previous research has suggested that certain viruses may play a role in Alzheimer’s disease later on, and “the pandemic has certainly given us an untoward opportunity” to finally try to better understand why, Snyder said.