A study reports that the brains of a small sample of patients who died of COVID display some of the same molecular changes found in the brains of people with Alzheimer’s disease.

The findings could help explain the memory problems reported by sufferers of «long COVID,» though the researchers caution that the study is small — with data from only 10 patients — and needs to be replicated by others.

The study was published Feb. 3 in Alzheimer’s & Dementia: The Journal of the Alzheimer’s Association.

Early reports of «brain fog» and persistent cardiac symptoms in COVID survivors prompted the Columbia researchers to investigate how certain molecules called ryanodine receptors were affected in this new disease.

Defective ryanodine receptors have been implicated in diverse pathogenic processes, ranging from heart and lung disease to the brain’s response to stress and Alzheimer’s disease, as reported in research led by Andrew Marks, MD, chair of the Department of Physiology & Cellular Biophysics at the Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons, who led the new study.

«When the COVID pandemic hit, like everybody else I was interested in being helpful and doing what we could do,» says Marks. «What we found is really I think quite unexpected: Not only did we find defective ryanodine receptors in the hearts and lungs of deceased COVID patients, we also found them in their brains.»

Molecular changes

Story Source:
Materials provided by Columbia University Irving Medical Center. Note: Content may be edited for style and length.