Even months after COVID-19 infection, University of Liverpool researchers identified brain damage markers. Blood tests for inflammation were normal. The results show that COVID-19 and other viruses causing acute brain dysfunction may benefit from targeting continuing inflammation and brain impairment that blood testing may miss.
A new study discovered brain damage markers in COVID-19 patients months after infection, despite normal blood tests for inflammation.
Key inflammatory proteins and brain damage markers are created during the acute phase of viral infection, when symptoms develop swiftly, according to UK university researchers.
Over 800 England and Wales hospitalized patients’ samples were analyzed.
The researchers reported in Nature Communications that COVID-19-induced brain damage persists months after hospitalization.
“While some neurological’symptoms’ were often mild (headache and muscle aches [myalgia]), it became clear that more significant and potentially life-changing new neurological ‘complications’ were occurring, including encephalitis (brain inflammation), seisures, and stroke,” said Benedict Michael, Principal Investigator and Director of the Infection Neuroscience Laboratory,
The researchers noted that inflammatory markers, associated with aberrant immune responses in the acute phase of the disease, may indicate continuing inflammation and brain injury that blood testing may miss.
These biomarkers may be therapeutic targets for COVID-19 and other acute brain dysfunction infections.
Our study found that signs of brain injury are detectable in the blood months following COVID-19, especially in individuals who have experienced a brain problem (e.g. inflammation, stroke), despite blood inflammatory response resolution.
“This suggests the possibility of ongoing inflammation and injury inside the brain itself which may not be detected by blood tests for inflammation,” he said.
Michael’s team is investigating how the findings affect cognitive function, independence, and recuperation.
The researchers also noted their findings helps identify possible neurological problems’ mechanisms.
Conclusion
Despite normal blood tests for inflammation, a study detected COVID-19-induced brain damage indicators months after infection. A study of 800 hospitalized patients from England and Wales discovered that brain damage markers were present in the blood months after the infection, even if the inflammatory response had resolved. This shows that blood testing for inflammation may miss brain inflammation and damage.
