June 13, 2022 – By Erin Digitale – Researchers found that damage to the brain’s white matter after COVID-19 resembles that seen after cancer chemotherapy, raising hope for treatments to help both conditions.
The discovery, described in a paper that published online June 12 in Cell, relied on studies of mice with mild SARS-CoV-2 infection and postmortem human brain tissue collected early in the pandemic. The findings may help guide treatments for cognitive effects of COVID-19, the scientists said.
The overlap between what happens in COVID-19’s cognitive aftermath and chemo brain, as it’s colloquially known, could be good news for patients because it may speed research on treatments, Monje said. “The exciting message is that because the pathophysiology is so similar, the last couple of decades in cancer therapy-related research can guide us to treatments that may help COVID brain fog.”
