Brain fog. Severe headaches. Loss of taste or smell. If you have ever had COVID-19, it’s likely you have experienced some of its effects on the brain.
In most cases, these symptoms are relatively short-lived. But now, scientists are investigating whether the virus could trigger the early onset of neurodegenerative disease, including Alzheimer’s, dementia, Parkinson’s Disease and stroke.
LIMS member Dr Nick Reynolds is a chief investigator in a working group of researchers led by Dr Josh Berryman (University of Luxembourg) who are examining this issue for the European Union Joint Program – Neurodegenerative Disease Research (EU-JPND).
Recently, the group published a summary and analysis of clinical data from the past five years in The Lancet: Neurology, which showed that although the virus does somewhat elevate the risk of neurodegenerative diseases, that risk is not necessarily more than that of other viruses, or environmental or lifestyle factors.
“It really seems like COVID-19 is just another thing in the modern world that is bad for you for more than the week you get it. It contributes towards the reduced health of the population, just like eating badly, pollution, and other diseases out there,” Dr Reynolds said.
The analysis suggests that a big surge of COVID-related neurodegenerative disease in the future is unlikely. However, there are other factors which could still put healthcare systems under pressure.
“Even with a small increase in prevalence of COVID-related neurodegenerative disease, nearly everyone in the world has had it. So, that’s still a huge number of people for healthcare systems to deal with,” Dr Reynolds said.
The working group will further their research in this area, and eventually report back to the EU-JPND, which will use the information to shape policy to protect the ageing populations of EU member states.
Dr Reynolds said that not only will this knowledge be useful in developing new treatments for COVID-related neurodegeneration, it could also help in the event of another pandemic.
“It’s important to be on the front foot with this. Increased risk of developing neurodegenerative disease is likely not limited to SARS-CoV-2. We need to know as much as we can about the chances of increased risk, to understand the mechanisms behind what’s causing these diseases, and also how to treat them,” Dr Reynolds said.
Read the paper here.
Dr Nick Reynolds is a Fellow at the La Trobe Institute for Molecular Science (LIMS) and the School of Agriculture, Biomedicine and Environment. Find out more about his work here.
