November 18, 2023
A recent story published by the Brain & Behavior Research Foundation highlighted work conducted by a team of researchers including Dr. Romina Mizrahi.
The team included Drs. Jeffrey Meyer, Romina Mizrahi, Nathan Kolla, and M. Ishrat Husain, all of whom have been supported by BBRF funding.
Overall, their work showed that gliosis, an immune response to brain injury, was present in the brains of recovered COVID patients with lingering depression and cognitive symptoms (COVID-DC). The two most affected brain regions were the ventral striatum and dorsal putamen. Higher readings in the latter area also were found to correlate with motor slowing. These results indicate that drugs to reduce gliosis may be able to help COVID-DC patients, and should be studied.