Coronavirus UK strain transmission is 'significant' says expert
As the world edges closer to a year anniversary of the coronavirus pandemic, scientists are still learning about the mysterious disease. The latest study shows that Covid-19 is not directly responsible for brain damage. However, experts who studied the brains of dead patients who had a positive Covid-19 diagnosis saw that the disease can affect the brain.
The coronavirus is predominantly a respiratory disease, yet sufferers often report headaches, delirium, cognitive dysfunction, dizziness, fatigue, and loss of the sense of smell – all signs of neurological problems.
The disease could also increase the likelihood of having a stroke.
Experts from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) conducted an in-depth examination of 19 people who had died from the coronavirus between March and July 2020 to analyse how the disease can impact the brain.
The researchers found that while Covid-19 does not directly impact the brain, the toll it takes on the immune system can lead to damage in the brain.
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It had been suspected that the damage to the brain was caused by a lack of oxygen, as would be typical of a respiratory disease, however this was not the case.
In all of the brain samples which were analysed, the scientists discovered hallmarks of damage caused by thinning and leaky brain blood vessels.
The researchers used a high-powered magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) which is up to 10 times more sensitive than a normal MRI scanner to examine the olfactory bulbs and brainstems from each patient.
Olfactory bulbs are responsible for our sense of smell, while the brainstem controls our heart rate and breathing.
The scans revealed that both parts of the brain were dotted with bright spots, called hyperintensities – which are a sign of inflammation, and dark spots – and hypointensities, that represent bleeding.
Analysis then revealed that the bright spots contained blood vessels that were thinner than normal and sometimes leaking blood proteins.
The scans also showed no signs of the disease in the brain, according to the research published in the New England Journal of Medicine.
Dr Avindra Nath, clinical director at the NIH’s National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS) and the senior author of the study, said: “We found that the brains of patients who contract infection from SARS-CoV-2 may be susceptible to microvascular blood vessel damage.
“Our results suggest that this may be caused by the body’s inflammatory response to the virus.
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“We hope these results will help doctors understand the full spectrum of problems patients may suffer so that we can come up with better treatments.
“We were completely surprised. Originally, we expected to see damage that is caused by a lack of oxygen.
“Instead, we saw multifocal areas of damage that is usually associated with strokes and neuroinflammatory diseases.
“So far, our results suggest that the damage we saw may not have been not caused by the SARS-CoV-2 virus directly infecting the brain.
“In the future, we plan to study how COVID-19 harms the brain’s blood vessels and whether that produces some of the short- and long-term symptoms we see in patients.”
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