South Carolina researchers to start study on coronavirus side effects on the brain | COVID-19

Much remains unknown about the coronavirus, and researchers in South Carolina are asking the public for help in determining the long-term effects of virus survival in a new study.

“Some people go through COVID like nothing … others are not so lucky,” said Julius Fridriksson, professor of public health at the University of South Carolina and the study’s lead investigator.

The USC Aging Brain Cohort is looking to research residents diagnosed with COVID-19 to study and better determine the impact of coronavirus on brain health once a person has recovered from the disease.

One of the team’s biggest motivators for wanting to do the study was to see people reporting a loss of mental clarity after recovering from the coronavirus, Fridriksson said. Interestingly, they saw patients reveal to deal with brain fog and a continued loss of smell or taste after they tested positive for COVID-19.

Fridriksson meets a man who was diagnosed with COVID-19 in March and still does not have a sense of smell.

Sarah Newman-Norlund, a cognitive research specialist at the USC project, said that initial reports from China earlier this year also stated the possibility of a negative impact on brain health due to the coronavirus.

In a Journal of the American Medical Association study of 214 coronavirus patients in China, 36.4 percent had neurological symptoms, including problems with maintaining consciousness and muscle damage. Patients with severe infections were more likely to experience these symptoms.

Newman-Norlund said that with research, studies like this need to be repeated in different medical systems, cultures and settings. That is why they argue that their new project is necessary.

“We can really learn more about who and what group of people is affecting,” she said.

The cohort, in partnership with Palmetto Health USC, is calling on anyone with a positive test for COVID-19, who recovered 28 days ago and is between 20 and 80 years old, to be part of the project. The study will consist of research, brain tests and MRI scans. Residents can visit abc.sc.edu for more information on how to get involved.

Sara Sayers, a specialist in speech pathology and an associate researcher at USC, said she chose the 20 to 80 age group for two reasons. The first is to coincide with your previous research and the second is to prevent the development of brain activity that is seen in people under the age of 20. The brain is still forming and shaping under the age of 20.

Before the pandemic, USC was already collecting a lot of data from people in their 20s and 80s to learn more about aging brain activity. Because of this data collection, they now have a control group to compare with the new COVID-19 patients.

“We are in an incredible position to really look at this,” said Sayers.

The team recently completed a study on the effect of isolation on the elderly during the pandemic. Six months before the appearance of COVID-19 cases in March, the cohort surveyed residents aged 60 to 80 years. They followed the same patients this summer.

Although this study is still being reviewed by other researchers, Sayers said they saw changes in the group’s social and emotional health.

But one of the experts’ main concerns is that there is still not enough information about the potential long-term effects of COVID-19.

Dr. Jacobo Mintzer, executive director of the Roper St. Francis Research and Innovation Center, works with Alzheimer’s research.

He said that working and examining patients with diseases like dementia during the pandemic is vital because any negative effect of COVID-19 on the diseases needs to be discovered.

“We don’t know, we need to collect information,” he said.

The USC study is open to all adults who test positive for coronavirus. This will also allow them to highlight the impact on people with pre-existing mental health problems, such as PTSD and dementia.

The goal is to complete the new study on brain health in the next six months. The hope is that the results will help researchers observe any patterns to help with advice on treatments for the coronavirus.

Newman-Norlund said they could potentially see if a loss of smell and taste has something to do with the coronavirus attacking a certain part of the brain. If there is a pattern when taking a particular medication or using a respirator, they can also identify it.

Fridriksson said, ultimately, that they hope only to give the public more information about what involves diagnosing viruses.

“Individuals who have recovered from COVID don’t know what the future holds for them,” he said.

Reach Jerrel Floyd at 843-937-5558. Follow him on Twitter @ jfloyd134.