Scientists Create Mini Brains to Examine the Cognitive Effects of Long COVID

Samudyata, et al., published the study “SARS-CoV-2 promotes microglial synapse elimination in human brain organoids” in Molecular Psychiatry on October 5, 2022, to better understand what COVID-19 can do to the human brain. Neuropsychiatric symptoms occur often in both the acute and post-acute stages of SARS-CoV-2 infections, however, the mechanisms of these manifestations have remained unknown.

The researchers created “brain organoids,” or mini brains roughly the size of a pinhead, and then infected them with SARS-CoV-2. Overall, it was observed that SARS-CoV-2 exposed microglia adopt a similar outcome as those with neurodegenerative disorders such as schizophrenia, Alzheimer’s, and Parkinson’s disease. The brain organoids infected with SARS-CoV-2 exhibited interference in circuit integrity via microglia-mediated synapse elimination. These findings help to identify a possible mechanism that may be generating cognitive impairments that occur in patients with COVID-19 infections.

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Read the study in Molecular Psychiatry.

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Read more about the impact of COVID-19 on cognition.

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