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Growing evidence shows that people with COVID-19 suffer from cognitive effects, such as brain fog and fatigue.
And researchers are finding out why. The SARS-CoV-2 virus, like many viruses before it, is bad news for the brain. In a study published Dec. 16 in Neuroscience of nature, the researchers found that the spike protein, often represented as the red arms of the virus, can cross the blood-brain barrier in mice.
This strongly suggests that SARS-CoV-2, the cause of COVID-19, can enter the brain.
The spike protein, often called the S1 protein, dictates which cells the virus can enter. Usually, the virus does the same thing as its binding protein, said lead author William A. Banks, a professor of medicine in the University of Washington School of Medicine and a veterans health system physician and researcher. of Puget Sound. The banks said that binding proteins like S1 usually cause damage by breaking away from the virus and causing inflammation.
“The S1 protein probably causes the brain to release cytokines and inflammatory products,” he said.
In scientific circles, the intense inflammation caused by the COVID-19 infection is called a cytokine storm. The immune system, upon seeing the virus and its proteins, overreacts in its attempt to kill the invading virus. The infected person suffers from brain fog, fatigue and other cognitive problems.
Banks and his team saw this reaction with the HIV virus and wanted to see if the same was happening with SARS CoV-2.
Banks said the S1 protein in SARS-CoV2 and the gp 120 protein in HIV-1 worked similarly. These are glycoproteins – proteins that contain a lot of sugars, characteristics of proteins that bind to other receptors. These two proteins work like the arms and hands of their viruses by attaching themselves to other receptors. Both cross the blood brain barrier and S1, like gp120, is likely toxic to brain tissue.
“It was like déjà vu,” said Banks, who has done extensive work on HIV-1, gp120, and the blood-brain barrier.
Banks’ lab studies the blood-brain barrier in Alzheimer’s disease, obesity, diabetes, and HIV. But they put their work on hold, and the 15 people in the lab began their S1 protein experiments in April. They recruited longtime collaborator Jacob Raber, professor in the departments of behavioral neuroscience, neurology and radiation therapy, and his teams at Oregon Health & Science University.
The study could explain many complications of COVID-19.
“We know that when you have a COVID infection you have trouble breathing and this is because there is an infection in your lungs, but a further explanation is that the virus enters the respiratory centers of the brain and It’s also causing problems, ”Banks said.
Raber said that in their experiments, S1 transport was faster in the olfactory bulb and kidney of males than in females. This observation could be linked to the increased sensitivity of men to more severe results from COVID-19.
As for people who take the virus lightly, Banks has a message:
“You don’t want to play with this virus,” he says. “Many of the effects of the COVID virus could be accentuated or perpetuated or even caused by the virus entering the brain and these effects could last for a very long time.”
This study was partially supported by a COVID-19 supplement funded by the National Institute on Aging to a shared RF1 grant from Banks and Raber.
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