A study from researchers at Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons 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…
