The neuroinflammatory basis of COVID fog has been suggested to involve cytokine-induced activation of regional microglia, causing decreased hippocampal neurogenesis and a loss of myelinated subcortical axons. The findings illustrate similar neuropathophysiology after cancer therapy and respiratory SARS-CoV-2 infection which may contribute to cognitive impairment following even mild COVID.
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Fernández-Castañeda A, Lu P, Geraghty AC, Song E, Lee MH, Wood J, O’Dea MR, Dutton S, Shamardani K, Nwangwu K, Mancusi R, Yalçın B, Taylor KR, Acosta-Alvarez L, Malacon K, Keough MB, Ni L, Woo PJ, Contreras-Esquivel D, Toland AMS, Gehlhausen JR, Klein J, Takahashi T, Silva J, Israelow B, Lucas C, Mao T, Peña-Hernández MA, Tabachnikova A, Homer RJ, Tabacof L, Tosto-Mancuso J, Breyman E, Kontorovich A, McCarthy D, Quezado M, Vogel H, Hefti MM, Perl DP, Liddelow S, Folkerth R, Putrino D, Nath A, Iwasaki A, Monje M. Mild respiratory COVID can cause multi-lineage neural cell and myelin dysregulation. Cell. 2022 Jun 13;185(14):2452–2468.e16. doi: 10.1016/j.cell.2022.06.008. Epub ahead of print. PMID: 35768006; PMCID: PMC9189143.
