A reduced functioning of some brain areas, but also the accumulation of toxic molecules such as amyloid (known for Alzheimer’s). The long shadow of Covid on the brain and memory could manifest itself like this. This is the conclusion reached by an Italian study, published in the ‘Journal of Neurology’, which observed this type of alteration in just under half of the cases analyzed of people who, one year after the disease, still complained of concentration disturbances, fog and mental tiredness.
The work, coordinated by the University of Milan and carried out in collaboration with the Aldo Ravelli Center of the State University, the Asst Santi Paolo e Carlo and the Irccs Auxologico, is – the experts explain – the first international research to examine in a combined way the cognitive alterations, the cerebral metabolism at such a large distance from the disease.
According to research, the effects of Covid can affect memory even after so many months. Tricolor scientists evaluated the cognitive consequences (memory, attention, language), brain functioning and, in one case, even the deposition of toxic molecules in the brain, in a selected group of patients with post Covid problems. The team coordinated by the neurologist Alberto Priori, included neurologists, psychologists and nuclear doctors. There were 7 patients taken into consideration: they presented persistent cognitive disorders detected by specific neuropsychological tests 1 year after Covid, disorders never complained before the disease. This group of patients was examined with positron emission tomography (Pet) using glucose bound to a radioactive isotope as a marker. Goal: To evaluate how active a specific area of the brain or brainstem is.
Four of the enrolled subjects had normal Pets while in 3 Pets revealed reduced functioning of the temporal areas (site of memory function), of the brainstem (site of some circuits that regulate attention and balance) and in the prefrontal areas (which regulate mental energy, motivation and, in part, behavior). In one of these patients who had a more serious cognitive disorder, a PET was also performed with a substance that allows the visualization of amyloid deposition in the brain.
Result: “an abnormal accumulation of amyloid emerged in the brain and particularly in the frontal lobes and in the cingulate cortex (linked to complex cognitive functions and emotions)”, underlines Luca Tagliabue, director of the Nuclear Medicine and Radiodiagnostics division of Asst Santi Paolo and Charles. “Amyloid – explains the expert – is a protein which, when it accumulates in neurons, determines their premature aging and degeneration and which is implicated in Alzheimer’s disease”. The conclusions that can be drawn, the authors observe, are that in just under half of the patients who complain of memory and concentration disturbances one year after Covid, there may be alterations in the functioning of the temporal, frontal and trunk brain areas. brain.
The observation of increased amyloid in one patient, reported for the first time in this study, could be “related to infection or the infection triggering the neurodegenerative cascade,” reads a note. More than half of the patients examined, on the other hand, while still complaining of cognitive disturbances (memory, attention and mental ‘fog’), had a normal Pet. “This data suggests that cognitive disorders that persist one year after the disease in more than half of the cases do not have a functional finding on the brain but may derive from exclusively psychological changes similar to post-traumatic stress disorder”, says Roberta Ferrucci, professor of psychobiology of the Milan State University.
The study “offers a range of interpretative hypotheses of the post-Covid damage and lays the foundations for a diversified evaluation of the patient in the long term. Neurodegenerative processes could also be triggered post-infection in selected cases according to different pathogenic pathways and this, obviously, is The main question we ask ourselves: can we expect neurodegenerative pathologies in the future?” asks Vincenzo Silani, former professor of Neurology at the State University and director of the Neuroscience Department of Auxologico Irccs. An aspect that, the experts conclude, will have to be evaluated in future studies.
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