Persistent Brain Injury Seen in Long COVID Patients, Canadian Study Finds

Long COVID Linked to Sustained Brain Damage, New Research Shows

According to НВ — Техно: A Canadian research team has identified lasting brain injury in individuals suffering from long COVID, a condition that may carry significant implications for their well-being. Long COVID remains a major public health concern, and identifying measurable biological changes is a critical step toward better care. The findings, published in eBioMedicine, reveal that patients reporting depression and apathy had roughly 18% fewer dopamine nerve terminals in the brain than healthy controls. To reach this conclusion, scientists used positron emission tomography (PET) with a radioactive tracer targeting the VMAT2 protein, comparing 24 adults with long COVID against 24 healthy participants matched by age.

How Long COVID Affects the Brain and Patients

The dopamine terminal loss was located in the striatum, a region tied to movement and motivation, and may help explain symptoms such as slowed movements, memory lapses, trouble finding words, and diminished drive. These brain abnormalities were still detectable up to 4.6 years after the initial infection. The researchers stress that there are currently no universally accepted diagnostic tools or evidence-backed treatments for long COVID.

Estimates suggest long COVID develops in 2% to 10% of everyone infected with SARS-CoV-2. Globally, at least 65 million people are affected, including 10–20% of children who had the infection. The condition manifests through more than 200 symptoms, including brain fog, chronic fatigue, vertigo, depression, and gastrointestinal distress.

Jeffrey Meyer, a neurochemist at the University of Toronto, heads the team and plans a clinical trial of a drug that targets the dopamine system to relieve long COVID-related symptoms. This line of investigation underscores how crucial it is to understand long COVID’s neurological impact in order to design effective treatment strategies.

The observed changes in the brains of long COVID patients point to an urgent need for further research in this area. Focusing on the dopamine pathway could open up new therapeutic avenues and improve quality of life for those enduring the persistent effects of the infection. With long COVID still highly prevalent, clarifying its effects on brain function remains essential for developing new clinical protocols.