[Reading Science] Severe COVID-19 Rapidly Ages the Brain

US Research Team Analyzes Brain Cells of Deceased
Finds Genetic Activity Changes Similar to Those in People in Their 70s

Human brain. Stock photo.

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Bong-su] Severe COVID-19 virus has been found to rapidly age the human brain.

According to the international academic journal Nature on the 6th, a research team from Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston, USA, published a paper in the aging-related journal Nature Aging on the 5th, reporting that brain cells of people who had severe COVID-19 and were admitted to the intensive care unit (ICU) or placed on ventilators showed widespread changes in genetic activity compared to those who did not.

The research team collected and analyzed samples of the prefrontal cortex, closely linked to cognitive function, from the brains of 22 deceased individuals, including 21 who died from severe COVID-19 and one who was confirmed to have asymptomatic infection after death. They also collected the same tissue samples from 22 individuals who had never been infected with COVID-19 for comparison.

The results confirmed that genes related to inflammation and stress were more activated in the brains of those who died after severe COVID-19 infection. Conversely, genes related to cognitive function and the formation of connections between brain cells were less activated.

Additionally, the team analyzed brain cells from 10 young deceased individuals under 38 years old and 10 deceased individuals over 71 years old who had not contracted COVID-19, confirming that the changes in brain cells of severe COVID-19 deceased resembled those of individuals over 71 years old.

The research team suggests that rather than the COVID-19 virus directly invading the brain, it may have caused inflammation that indirectly affected genetic activity in the brain, leading to aging-like phenomena. In fact, the team also confirmed that exposing cultured brain cells in the laboratory to inflammation-promoting proteins influenced the activity of aging-related genes.

Daniel Martins, a professor of proteomics at Campinas University in Brazil, stated, "This is still preliminary research and requires verification through more sophisticated approaches," but added, "It may help treat cognitive impairments (long COVID) that persist in people after recovering from COVID-19."