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New Delhi: Changes in the spike protein have increased the ability of coronavirus to infect the brain, which may be the basis for the evolution of the virus. Brain-related symptoms of the disease, including brain fog Of Long CovidAccording to a new study, the spike protein guides the virus, SARS-CoV-2How to enter human cells before getting infected with COVID-19.
The exact causes of long Covid, which persists for months after the initial infection, and its symptoms affecting the brain are still not known and are being extensively studied across the world.
Hence, this study can help scientists understand these aspects better and may lead to the following results: Specific Treatments According to researchers from Northwestern University, UK, and University of Illinois-Chicago, US, this drug can prove effective in preventing and eliminating the virus from the brain.
For the study, published in the journal Nature Microbiology, researchers infected mice with the coronavirus. As the virus replicated inside the host, the researchers compared the virus’s spike protein in the brain to the protein in the lungs.
Rats are often studied because they are biologically similar to humans.
The researchers found that the spike protein in the lungs was similar to that of the virus that infected mice. However, in the brain, most of the virus’s spike proteins had deletions or mutations in a region important for entering human cells.
“Looking at the genomes of the viruses found in the brain compared with those in the lungs, we found that viruses with a specific deletion in the spike were much better at infecting the brains of these animals,” said Judd Hultquist, assistant professor of medicine (infectious diseases) at Northwestern University and corresponding author of the study.
Furthermore, when viruses with the mutated spike proteins reached the lungs of mice, they were found to be weakened.
Therefore, the researchers suggested that these viruses were better able to infect cells of the brain and central nervous system.
The authors also believe that the spike protein is “an important regulator of whether or not the virus enters the brain”.
Thus, these findings could have major implications for treatment and management. Neurological symptoms Hultquist said this is consistent with reports from COVID-19 patients.
“If (long Covid) is caused by infection of cells in the central nervous system, our study suggests there may be specific treatments that may work better than others at clearing the virus from this compartment,” he said.
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