Echoes of neurodegenerative disease in deadly COVID-19

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The following is a summary of some of the latest scientific studies on the novel coronavirus and efforts to find treatments and vaccines for COVID-19, the disease caused by the virus.

COVID-19 Brains Show Inflammation, ‘Circuit’ Problems

The brain inflammation and altered “brain circuits” seen in people who die from COVID-19 closely resemble what doctors see in the brains of people who die from neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s disease and Alzheimer’s disease. Parkinson’s, researchers reported in the journal Nature on Monday. Brain tissue scans of eight people who died from COVID-19 and 14 others who died from other causes have shown “striking changes” in the brains of COVID-19 patients, the Stanford University researcher told Reuters , Tony Wyss-Coray. His team at Stanford, along with colleagues at the University of Saarbrücken in Germany, analyzed thousands of genes in each of the 65,309 individual cells taken from the brain tissue samples. Genes involved in cognition, schizophrenia and depression were more often “turned on” in the brains of COVID-19 patients, they found. “There were also signs of distress in neurons in the cerebral cortex, the region of the brain that plays a key role in decision-making, memory and mathematical reasoning,” the researchers said in a statement. “These neurons… form complex logic circuits that perform these higher brain functions. Wyss-Coray said his team couldn’t find the virus itself in the brain, suggesting that “a viral infection in the rest of the body might be enough to cause neurological symptoms, even in people who do not die of the disease “. The findings, Wyss-Coray noted in a statement, “may help explain brain fog, fatigue, and other neurological and psychiatric symptoms of long-term COVID.” (https://go.nature.com/3gP88AL)

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Poor sleep history linked to more severe COVID-19

Poor sleep habits may be linked to a higher risk of serious illness in patients with COVID-19, according to researchers at Harvard University. They analyzed survey responses from more than 46,000 participants in UK Biobank’s long-term study, including 8,422 who tested positive for COVID-19. Participants had answered questions from 2006 to 2010 on sleep duration, daytime sleepiness, insomnia and biological clocks. For the new study, based on their responses, the researchers assigned scores ranging from 0 to 6, with higher scores indicating several “traits” of poor sleep. In participants with COVID-19, poor scores were associated with higher risks of death. This was true even after researchers took into account issues known to be risk factors for poor COVID-19 outcomes such as sleep apnea, obesity and smoking, they reported in the Friday. journal Clinical Infectious Diseases. Even people with two occasional or frequent sleep traits appeared to have higher risks of hospitalization and death, although the difference was not statistically significant and more studies are needed to confirm the results, the researchers said. Poor sleep affects the immune system and blood clotting, both of which are essential in the body’s fight against COVID-19, and “tracking sleep behavior can be important in identifying those at increased risk for death and COVID-19-related hospitalizations, “the authors said. . (https://bit.ly/2Ut2MUB)

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Most COVID-19 antibody drugs likely work against variants

Most of the COVID-19 antibody drugs that are approved for emergency use in the United States – and some that are still in development – have the potential to protect against variants of the new coronavirus, new data suggests. In test-tube experiments, the researchers exposed the antibodies, alone and in combination, to “engineered” versions of mutated virus and to an actual virus obtained from patients infected with alpha, beta, or gamma variants – identified for the virus. first seen in Britain, South Africa and Brazil, respectively – or variants first seen in New York, California or India. Then, in mice and hamsters, they tested for antibodies against the beta variant, which is “most likely to escape neutralization … and has the most resistance to COVID-19 vaccines,” the team said. research in a press release. Some individual drugs appeared to lose their effectiveness against variants in test tubes – but in animals, low doses of most drugs, given in combination, were protective, the researchers reported Monday in the journal Nature. Another advantage of the combinations is that they “appeared to prevent the emergence of resistant viruses,” study co-author Jacco Boon of the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis said in the statement. “Resistance has developed with some of the monotherapies, but never with a combination therapy. “(https://go.nature.com/3xJuOJL)

– Report by Nancy Lapid; Editing by Will Dunham