Uploaded March 2022 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
CHICAGO — Coronavirus brain damage: Two ways COVID-19 can cause long COVID explained.
At least one-third of people who have had COVID-19 experience neurological complications, according to the chief of Neuroinfectious Diseases and Global Neurology at Northwestern Medicine, and Axios reports that scientists have established two possible mechanisms behind the phenomenon.
A study in science journal Nature found that SARS-CoV-2 has the ability to cross the blood-brain barrier which usually tightly regulates the movement of molecules, ions and cells between the blood and the central nervous system, resulting in degradation.
A U.S. National Center for Biotechnology Information study, meanwhile, found that brain-barrier cells of the choroid plexus can become inflamed, relay inflammation onto glial cells and cause damage to neurons.
Without indicating which of these mechanisms was responsible, a separate study in Nature found even people with mild COVID-19 infections showed evidence of cognitive decline, degeneration in parts of the brain and brain shrinkage.
SOURCES: Axios, Nature, U.S. National Center for Biotechnology Information
axios.com/covid-brain-fog-damage-4a2e6e6b-1e92-42e0-b545-9b6f4390629a.html
nature.com/articles/s41586-022-04569-5_reference.pdf
ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8400927
ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4292164
CHICAGO — Coronavirus brain damage: Two ways COVID-19 can cause long COVID explained.
At least one-third of people who have had COVID-19 experience neurological complications, according to the chief of Neuroinfectious Diseases and Global Neurology at Northwestern Medicine, and Axios reports that scientists have established two possible mechanisms behind the phenomenon.
A study in science journal Nature found that SARS-CoV-2 has the ability to cross the blood-brain barrier which usually tightly regulates the movement of molecules, ions and cells between the blood and the central nervous system, resulting in degradation.
A U.S. National Center for Biotechnology Information study, meanwhile, found that brain-barrier cells of the choroid plexus can become inflamed, relay inflammation onto glial cells and cause damage to neurons.
Without indicating which of these mechanisms was responsible, a separate study in Nature found even people with mild COVID-19 infections showed evidence of cognitive decline, degeneration in parts of the brain and brain shrinkage.
SOURCES: Axios, Nature, U.S. National Center for Biotechnology Information
axios.com/covid-brain-fog-damage-4a2e6e6b-1e92-42e0-b545-9b6f4390629a.html
nature.com/articles/s41586-022-04569-5_reference.pdf
ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8400927
ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4292164










