Upon performing postmortem studies on 54 infected and healthy people, researchers discovered how severe COVID-19 strikingly and scarily looks like the human brain in old age.
According to Science Alert, study authors mentioned how their project was the first to connect COVID-19 with molecular markers of brain ageing.
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Brain Tissues of Severe COVID-19 Patients Mirrors that of Those Who Are at Least 71 Years Old
The findings of the study were included in the Nature Aging publication.
According to Jonathan Lee, a public health scientist from Harvard University, they observed how the expression of genes within brain tissues of those who succumbed to COVID-19 was strikingly similar to that of typical individuals who were at least 71 years old.
Their sample comprised individuals from their early 20s up to mid-80s. It also included 21 people who battled severe COVID-19, one asymptomatic person, and 22 who were not battling the condition.
The experts also compared their findings with someone who did not have COVID-19 but were dealing with Alzheimer's disease. They also compared it with a different group of 9 healthy individuals who had previously experienced treatment through ventilators and hospitalization.
Through RNA sequencing technology performed on prefrontal cortex samples, the experts discovered that those battling severe COVID-19 had enhanced patterns of genetic expressions linked to aging.
Moreover, the brains of those battling the virus more strikingly mirrored older people from the control group, regardless of their age.
Simply stated, genes typically upregulated in the aging process were found to upregulate in cases of intense COVID-19. Similarly, genes that also downregulated in the aging process also exhibited downregulation in the same case.
The authors also noticed significant connections between cellular responses to damage in DNA, the function of the mitochondria, stress and oxidative stress response regulation, homeostasis of calcium, vesicular transport, and insulin secretion channels previously linked to the process of general and brain aging. Overall, their findings suggest that just as several biological channels alter in the aging process, the same happens in cases of severe COVID-19.
These findings may seemingly follow a previously conducted study released earlier this year. According to this study, severe COVID-19 has a great cognitive impact that equates to around 20 years of aging.
However, the experts did not find any genetic evidence of the virus within the brains of those infected. This suggests that these neurological results may not be direct because of the virus' presence within the nervous system.
The scientists found evidence of TNF, or tumor necrosis factor, strongly linked to cognitive decline due to age, inflammation, and brain aging. They noticed how this had higher levels in the infected people's brains.
Future Implications
Amsterdam University neuropathologist Marianna Buigani expressed how these recent findings lead to many essential questions. These queries are not just helpful in understanding the virus but also in preparing people for the consequences of the pandemic.
In light of the recent findings, the researchers suggest that those battling COVID-19 should undergo neurological check-ups and follow-ups. If the presence of COVID-19 is sufficient to trigger brain inflammation, it may be possible that every infected person is at risk of having their brain deteriorate.
Nevertheless, until specialists know more about the phenomenon, scientists say that doctors and patients should consider other dementia risk factors that can be controlled.
Moreover, Science Alert notes that it is best to avoid COVID-19 infection to the best of one's capacity.
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