Tag : Parkinson

New Delhi: The SARS-CoV-2 virus may increase the likelihood of the brain degeneration found in Parkinson's disease, according to a study in mice. COVID-19 patients commonly report symptoms such as brain fog, headaches, and insomnia, complications which are not new after a viral infection, the researchers said. It took nearly a decade for patients to develop the neurological disease known as 'post-encephalic parkinsonism' after the 1918 influenza pandemic, they said. The study, published in the journal Movement Disorders, found that the SARS-CoV-2 virus could raise the brain's susceptibility to a toxin that causes the death of nerve cells seen in Parkinson's disease. 'Parkinson's is a rare disease that affects 2 per cent of the population above 55 years, so the increase in risk is not necessarily a cause for panic,' said study first author Richard Smeyne, from Thomas Jefferson University, US. 'But understanding how coronavirus impacts the brain can help us prepare for the long-term consequences of this pandemic,' Smeyne said. The study expands on prior findings from the Smeyne lab indicating that viruses can increase the susceptibility of brain cells or neurons to damage or death. In that study, the researchers discovered that mice exposed to the H1N1 influenza strain that caused the 2009 flu pandemic were more vulnerable to MPTP. MPTP is a toxin known to cause some of the characteristic symptoms of Parkinson's disease, most notably the loss of neurons that express the chemical dopamine and increased inflammation in the basal ganglia, a brain region that is crucial for movement. The latest study employed mice that were genetically altered to express the human ACE-2 receptor, which the SARS-CoV-2 virus utilises to get access to th ...