A new study found that COVID-19 may cause brain damage, resulting in cognitive impairment.
Researchers from France, Spain and Germany conducted the study. They found that COVID-19 could kill endothelial brain cells.
Research has shown that as many as 84 percent of COVID-19 sufferers have neurological symptoms. This includes anosmia (loss or sense of smell), epileptic seizures and strokes.
Yelena Dahanova, Insider's reporter, previously reported on how COVID-19 patients experience memory loss even months after contracting it.
The brains of COVID-19-related deaths were scanned.
String vessels were found to be a sign that a dead cell cannot allow blood flow. This is known as cognitive impairment and can lead to a variety of medical risks including micro strokes.
The brains of #COVID-19 patients have damaged blood vessels (more so-called string vessels representing remnants of lost capillaries); SARS-CoV-2 infects brain endothelial cells and leads to microvascular pathology via RIPK signalinghttps://t.co/vR0mgZ9EbS Nature Neuroscience (@NatureNeuro) October 21, 2021
However, there is hope that this new aspect of COVID-19 can be reversed.
"We have observed that in hamsters who develop very minor forms COVID-19, we have seen that the phenomenon is apparently reverseable, so it's possible that it could also reversible in people," Vincent Prvot from Lille's Inserm research centre, co-author of this paper, told RFI News.
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