Severe COVID-19 Linked With Molecular Signatures of Brain Aging - Neuroscience News

Summary: Gene usage in the brains of those who suffered severe COVID-19 infections was similar to that observed in the aging brain.

Researchers say COVID-19 is associated with molecular signatures of brain aging.

Patients report symptoms including brain fog or lack of focused thinking, memory loss and depression, and scientists have demonstrated that patients with severe COVID-19 exhibit a drop in cognitive performance that mimics accelerated aging.

In a series of experiments, scientists at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC), found that gene usage in the brains of patients with COVID-19 is similar to those observed in aging brains.

Using a molecular profiling technique called RNA sequencing to measure the levels of every gene expressed in a particular tissue sample, the scientists assessed changes in gene expression profiles in the brains of COVID-19 patients and compared them to those changes observed in the brains of uninfected individuals.

The team’s analysis, published in Nature Aging, suggested that many biological pathways that change with natural aging in the brain also changed in patients with severe COVID-19.

“Ours is the first study to show that COVID-19 is associated with the molecular signatures of brain aging,” said co-first and co-corresponding author Maria Mavrikaki, PhD, an instructor of pathology at BIDMC and Harvard Medical School.

“We observed that gene expression in the brain tissue of patients who died of COVID-19 closely resembled that of uninfected individuals 71 years old or older,” said co-first author Jonathan Lee, PhD, a postdoctoral research fellow at BIDMC and Harvard Medical School.

Better understanding of the molecular mechanisms underlying brain aging and cognitive decline in COVID-19 could lead to the development of novel therapeutics to address cognitive decline observed in COVID-19 patients.

“Severe COVID-19 is associated with molecular signatures of aging in the human brain” by Jonathan Lee et al

Severe COVID-19 is associated with molecular signatures of aging in the human brain

As coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) and aging are both accompanied by cognitive decline, we hypothesized that COVID-19 might lead to molecular signatures similar to aging

Our findings indicate that COVID-19 is associated with molecular signatures of brain aging and emphasize the value of neurological follow-up in recovered individuals