Many people experience “prolonged COVID” symptoms after an acute attack of COVID-19 infection. Half of them are neuropsychiatric and show obvious symptoms. How does COVID-19 infection damage the brain and nerves?
There are two ways to rectify these losses.
Psychiatric and neurological symptoms account for half of all chronic COVID cases
According to a study published in the Journal of Infectious Diseases in 2022, 50 percent of the top 18 symptoms of prolonged COVID are neuropsychiatric, including memory problems, sleep problems, brain fog, anxiety, depression, smell or taste disorders. Dizziness, and headache.
An article in the journal Science suggests that vaccination can also cause rare symptoms similar to prolonged COVID.
These symptoms can have a significant impact on people’s daily work and lives.
To find effective solutions, we first need to understand how the SARS-CoV-2 virus damages one’s neuropsychiatric system.
SARS-CoV-2 virus can cross the ‘blood-brain barrier’ and attack the brain
First, the SARS-CoV-2 virus can enter the brain.
In healthy people, the brain is strongly protected by the blood–brain barrier, so harmful substances and immune cells cannot enter the brain normally under healthy conditions.
However, in an article published in The Lancet Neurology, a neuropathological analysis of the brains of 43 patients who died due to COVID-19 found that most of them had inflammation and immune activation in the brain. 86 percent of patients had astrocyte proliferation in all brain regions that were examined. These cells usually accumulate at sites of neuronal damage, and abnormal presence of immune cells was found in the brains of 76 percent of patients.
These immune-triggered pathological changes are expected. However, more surprisingly, SARS-CoV-2 virus proteins were directly detectable in various brain regions of 53 percent of these patients, including the neuronal center controlling respiratory and cardiovascular functions in the lower part of the brainstem ( the connective part between the cerebrum). and spinal cord).
In addition, experiments with primates have also shown that the SARS-CoV-2 virus can directly damage nerve cells, causing them to deteriorate and even die.
How does the SARS-CoV-2 virus cross the blood-brain barrier and infect brain and nerve cells? Currently, there are three theories that are widely discussed and even accepted by the academic community:
After entering the nasal cavity, the virus binds to ACE2 receptors in olfactory nerve terminals and thus enters the central nervous system via reverse axonal transport.
After entering the endothelial cells of blood vessels, it can be released by these cells, penetrate other cell layers, and then finally break through the blood–brain barrier.
The virus enters immune cells in the peripheral blood and “rides” on them to cross the blood-brain barrier like soldiers in a Trojan horse.
What would the virus do to the neurons then?
Experiment: 3 days after COVID infection, only 5 percent of neural progenitor cells were left
A study published in the journal Cell Research found that the SARS-CoV-2 virus not only replicates in neuronal cells, but also causes apoptosis (cell death) of neural progenitor cells. Only less than 5 percent of neural progenitor cells survived for 3 days after COVID infection, and this percentage dropped to less than 2.5 percent after five days.
Why does the SARS-CoV-2 virus cause such severe damage to nerve cells? The mechanism of nerve damage caused by the SARS-CoV-2 virus is summarized in a review published in the journal Nature.
In addition to directly affecting brain and nerve cells, inducing cell death, the SARS-CoV-2 virus can attack blood vessels, causing ischemia (restriction of blood flow) and hypoxia (lack of oxygen) in the brain could; Antibodies to the virus can also bind to normal components of the brain, resulting in autoimmune attacks on the nerves of the brain.
Furthermore, we have previously summarized that COVID disease can cause cytokine storms that result in inflammation of the nervous system; And they can damage the mitochondria of nerve cells and lipid metabolism disorder. We’ve explained these in detail in the article Why Prolonged COVID and Vaccine Injuries Look So Similar: Experts Explain. ,
SARS-CoV-2 virus inhibits ‘autophagy’, affects brain’s self-renewal
In addition to these reasons, a recent article published in the journal Developmental Cell found that the SARS-CoV-2 virus can disrupt the autophagic process of cells.
The concept of autophagy was first introduced in 1974 by the Belgian cell and biochemist Christian de Duve, who was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.
Literally, autophagy means “eating yourself.” It is an important physiological mechanism for cells to digest and reuse waste products and to renew themselves.
During the process of autophagy, an autophagosome is first produced in the cell, and it acts as a “garbage bag” to wrap the various waste products in the cell. The “garbage bag” is combined with a lysosome (loads of enzymes to break down the waste) to form a “waste processing station” called an autolysosome, which will break down and recycle the wrapped waste materials.
Autophagy is an important physiological mechanism that not only removes harmful components from cells in a timely manner, but also converts waste proteins into recyclable amino acids. It brings a variety of benefits to the body, including anti-aging benefits, reducing inflammatory conditions, boosting immunity and reducing the risk of cancer.
In cells infected with the SARS-CoV-2 virus, the formation of autolysosomes is inhibited, resulting in many more garbage bags but reduced processing capacity. The SARS-CoV-2 virus inhibits the formation of autolysosomes, and prevents the timely recycling of waste and harmful substances into cells.
In addition, inhibition of autophagy leads to the accumulation of degraded viral proteins and genetic material in cells, leading to increased secretion of pro-inflammatory factors and causing cytokine storms, which are worse for already fragile neuronal cells. Huh.
Autophagy dysregulation has many harmful effects on the body, especially on the nervous system. This is because neuronal cells, unlike our skin cells, renew regularly and when damaged. Neuronal cells have a long life span, and cannot be renewed any time they are damaged, so they need to rely on the autophagy system to clean up and repair themselves in response to external stresses.
So, neuronal cells are extremely sensitive to such disruptions. Without an effective defense, the effect of such cells being nearly corrupted and dying is conceivable.
Furthermore, autophagic activity decreases with age. Therefore, autophagic dysfunction in the elderly may exacerbate the disease. A study published in the journal Clinical Medicine found that COVID-19 patients had cognitive impairment equivalent to age 20, with a loss of 10 IQ points. We can now better understand the data from this study.
2 Simple Tips to Activate Autophagy
Autophagy plays a very important role in human health. So how can we activate the blocked autophagy process?
When cells are invaded or damaged by pathogens, the body automatically activates autophagy. Furthermore, intermittent fasting may also activate the autophagy process, as fasting can cause cells to deprive nutrients and enter a state of starvation, which prompts cells to clear and recycle waste materials. will encourage. So fasting can improve many chronic diseases, including diabetes and arthritis.
We would like to present two other novel methods to effectively activate autophagy.
1. Terpene Nutrients
Plants provide us with many health-improving nutrients.
In an article published in the journal Aging in 2021, Russian scientists noted that terpenes extracted from Siberian pine trees can effectively activate autophagy.
After treating cells with terpenes for 24 h, the percentage of cells containing autophagosomes (garbage bags) or autophagolysosomes (garbage processing stations) increased significantly compared to the control group, and also in the number of autophagosomes contained in a single cell increased.
Terpenoids are the main constituents of essential oils of many plants. Essential oils are also widely used in aromatherapy. For example, citrus peel and peppermint essential oil can help improve mood and spirit.
According to statistics, the total number of known terpenoids exceeds 22,000, and they are one of the most important sources for the development of new treatments.
2. Sitting in Meditation
Another therapy that can activate autophagy is meditation.
A 2016 study published in the journal Nature – Translational Psychiatry looked at 64 healthy women, half of whom were discharged while the other half meditated.
After one week, it was found that the meditators had significantly lower serum Aβ40, meaning increased autophagy in brain nerve cells and a lower risk of dementia.
The finding echoes the findings of a 2007 study published in the journal Neurobiology of Aging.
The study compared the amount of gray matter in the brains of meditators and non-meditators. It turned out that meditators’ gray matter volume did not decrease with age, but even increased, suggesting that meditation reverses brain aging and damage.
The meditators also showed significant improvements in their ability to concentrate and their reaction time, which may help chronic COVID patients suffering from brain fog.
This long-lasting pandemic has affected the human body in many ways, including putting immense strain on our nervous system and mental health. By taking a holistic approach and understanding the close relationship between man and nature, mind and body, we may have a better chance of radically raising the level of our physical and mental health.
Reference
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(This story has not been edited by seemayo staff and is published from a rss feed)