(ORDO NEWS) — Coronavirus can lead to unpleasant consequences. For example, to a serious destruction of nerve cells. And stronger than in Alzheimer’s disease.
According to the author, to understand the situation with the brain and coronavirus, you need to know three things about the brain.
These are a neuron (a cell that receives, processes and transmits information), an axon (a kind of “cord” along which impulses are transmitted in the brain), neuroglia (glue-like cells that surround neurons). If these three named components are destroyed, then special substances begin to be released in the brain.
Moreover, if the level of UCHL1 increases, then neurons are destroyed, if NFL – axons, if GFAP – glia.
American scientists recently published the results of brain studies of people with covid and Alzheimer’s disease.
During the experiment, they assessed the state of the brain of about 250 people with coronavirus, and then compared with data from a study that analyzed the state of the brain in patients with Alzheimer’s.
As a result, it turned out that in subjects with covid, the amount of NFL (substance associated with axons) is three times higher than in people with Alzheimer’s disease (73 picograms per milliliter and 26 picograms per milliliter).
At the same time, the level of GFAP in patients with covid was also higher: 443 versus 275. The same with UCHL1: 43 versus 38.
At the same time, scientists emphasize that even for those who have had a more or less mild form of coronavirus, the situation with the above markers is much more critical. Although, of course, this does not mean at all that all covid survivors will face Alzheimer’s disease. But the risk in this case will still increase markedly.
In addition, people with coronavirus have a phenomenon called “toxic metabolic encephalopathy.” There are many symptoms of this condition: for example, it can be confusion or even coma.
The reason for this is the lack of oxygen in the nerve cells and the production of toxic substances against the background of an excessive immune response.
At the same time, Helen Mkhitaryan, a senior researcher at the Department of Neurology and Clinical Neurophysiology at the Sechenov Moscow State Medical University, noted that it is actually not so simple with these disorders.
They can occur in the elderly if they already have changes associated with Alzheimer’s disease, but not yet at the clinical stage. This is due to the fact that such changes occur 10-15 years before the appearance of the very signs of COVID-19. In other words, because of the coronavirus, people simply show all these symptoms faster.
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