SARS-CoV-2, the virus behind the COVID-19 pandemic, persists in the skull and meninges for years after infection, causing long-term effects on the brain, according to a major German study.
Researchers from Helmholtz Munich and Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität (LMU) found that the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein persists in the protective layers of the brain – the meninges and bone marrow of the skull – for up to four years after infection.
The team found that these spike proteins are responsible for causing chronic inflammation in affected individuals and increasing the risk of neurodegenerative diseases.
Prof. Helmholtz, Director of the Institute for Intelligent Biotechnologies in Munich. Ali Erturk said long-term neurological effects include “rapid brain aging, potentially leading to a loss of five to 10 years of healthy brain function in affected individuals.”
The study, published in the journal Cell Host & Microbe, found long-term Covid may also cause neurological symptoms such as headaches, sleep disturbances and “brain fog” or cognitive impairment.
About five to 10 percent of people infected with Covid are likely to experience long-term Covid – about 400 million individuals may have significant amounts of the spike protein.
In particular, vaccines against the deadly virus significantly reduce the accumulation of spike proteins in the brain, the researchers said.
However, the reduction was “only about 50 percent in mice, leaving residual spike protein that continued to pose a toxic threat to the brain”.
For the study, the team developed an innovative AI-powered imaging technique to understand how the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein affects the brain.
The method, which offers a three-dimensional view of the viral protein, was deployed to explore the previously unknown distribution of the spike protein in tissue samples from COVID-19 patients and mice.
The findings showed that spike protein concentrations remained significantly elevated in the bone marrow and meninges of the skull, even years after infection.
The spike protein binds to so-called ACE2 receptors, particularly abundant in these areas.
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