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‘Eat Me’ Signals In COVID Brains

covid Apr 20, 2021

As we watch the plot of COVID19 play itself out both in science and politics, one question arises daily: “Why?”.  For example, “Why does COVID19 cause brain symptoms?”  More specifically, does it infect the brain directly or are the brain and its cells just collateral damage?  Researchers have repeatedly found inflammation and damage to brain tissue on autopsies which correlates with the neurologic symptoms the patient had before death, but we all still need to know “Why?”.  Researchers from Columbia University Irving Medical Center believe they have shed light on the question with their research.

As COVID19, the disease caused by a coronavirus called SARS CoV2, ravages the world and controls the new media, the list of symptoms attributed to it in both the short and the long term keeps growing.  While coronaviruses are known for their respiratory effects, mainly the common cold, this one seems to send shockwaves throughout the body.  It has not left the brain and nervous system untouched.  In the short term, brain fog and headaches plague those with moderate to severe disease.  In the longer term, known as long-hauler COVID, this brain fog and other neurologic symptoms can continue.

In order to combat these neurologic effects, doctors have worked on the immediate symptoms of hypoxia of pneumonia and lowering inflammation in the severe cases.  In order to improve our medical fight against the disease researchers dig into the neurologic effects using CT’s and MRI’s for the living as well as autopsy studies on the deceased.  Understanding the mechanisms by which damage is done will help doctors focus their therapies on the most efficacious targets.

Probably the biggest watershed question was whether the virus directly invaded the brain cells like the lungs and other organs or the brain just collateral damage.  Researchers in this study used 3 different methods of virus detection in over 20 areas of autopsied brains to determine if the virus had infected the brain cells.  They concluded that at most they could find very low levels of virus in a few samples which they suspected was contaminated from blood vessels.

Beyond looking for actual viruses, they used other methods to look for explanations of brain damage.  They, not surprisingly, found evidence of strokes which they knew had occurred from CT and MRI studies.  They also found microscopic evidence of hypoxia, or decreased oxygenation, which they suspect been caused by microscopic blood vessel clots.  These could explain many of the symptoms but not all.

In some areas of the brain, microglia, immune cells which normally act as the brain’s immune sentries, were seen eating brain cells.  Something had turned these cells on and caused them to target  brain cells instead of the bad guys.  The immune messengers called cytokines which were elevated by COVID19 likely activated the microglia.  Simultaneously, the lack of oxygen may have triggered the brain cells to display “eat me” signals on their surfaces.  This is like putting a pile of French fries in front of starving teenagers, and the ensuing feeding frenzy damaged the brain tissue.

They believe that other researchers study claims of finding evidence of virus in the brain were likely contamination by blood or blood vessels with viral RNA.  They hope their research will help improve treatment of COVID 19 patients both the short and the long term.  In functional medicine, we will continue to focus attention on lowering inflammation in our COVID19 patients using glutathione, vitamin C, curcumin and other therapies after infection occurs.  Before infection disrupts the patient’s life, we work on lowering the metabolic inflammation which we know puts patients at risk for infection in diabetes, obesity, hypertension and other inflammatory disorders.  Lowering inflammation helps patients with or without COVID 19 in 2021 and beyond.

 

Original Article:

Kiran T Thakur, Emily Happy Miller, Michael D Glendinning, Osama Al-Dalahmah, Matei A Banu, Amelia K Boehme, Alexandra L Boubour, Samuel S Bruce, Alexander M Chong, Jan Claassen, Phyllis L Faust, Gunnar Hargus, Richard A Hickman, Sachin Jambawalikar, Alexander G Khandji, Carla Y Kim, Robyn S Klein, Angela Lignelli-Dipple, Chun-Chieh Lin, Yang Liu, Michael L Miller, Gul Moonis, Anna S Nordvig, Jonathan B Overdevest, Morgan L Prust, Serge Przedborski, William H Roth, Allison Soung, Kurenai Tanji, Andrew F Teich, Dritan Agalliu, Anne-Catrin Uhlemann, James E Goldman, Peter Canoll. COVID-19 neuropathology at Columbia University Irving Medical Center/New York Presbyterian Hospital. Brain, April 15, 2021; DOI: 10.1093/brain/awab148

Thanks to Science Daily:

Columbia University Irving Medical Center. “Coronavirus does not infect the brain but still inflicts damage, study finds.” ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 16 April 2021. <www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2021/04/210416120044.htm>.

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