COVID-19 Can Damage Blood Vessels in The Brain, Causing Neurological Symptoms

A new study has found that COVID-19 can cause damage to blood vessels in the brain, damaging cognitive function.

The study, conducted by scientists from Germany, France, and Spain, reveals that COVID-19 can kill brain cells known as endothelial cells.

Studies have previously found that up to 84 percent of COVID-19 patients suffer from neurological symptoms, anosmia (loss of sense of taste or smell), epileptic seizures, strokes, loss of consciousness, and confusion, and this may be an explanation as to why.

Insider's Yelena Dzhanova previously covered how patients of COVID-19 suffer memory loss, even months after contracting the virus.

The study was conducted by scanning the brains of people who had died from COVID-19.

The results of the research showed string vessels, a dead cell that cannot allow blood to flow, and is a sign of cognitive impairment, and has a number of medical risks, including micro strokes.

The brains of #COVID-19 patients have damaged blood vessels (more so-called string vessels representing remnants of lost capillaries); SARS-CoV-2 infects brain endothelial cells and leads to microvascular pathology via RIPK signalinghttps://t.co/vR0mgZ9EbS

— Nature Neuroscience (@NatureNeuro) October 21, 2021

There is hope, however, that this new facet of COVID-19 may be reversible.

"We have seen that in hamsters, who develop very minor forms of COVID-19, the phenomenon is apparently reversible, so we can hope that it could also be reversible in humans," a co-author of the paper, Vincent Prévot, from the Inserm research center in Lille, told RFI news.

This article was originally published by Business Insider.

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