2023-09-23 17:24:00
the essentials Two recent studies affirm that long Covid has repercussions on several organs of the human body. The syndrome would, among other things, lead to cognitive decline in many patients.
It is an illness that has affected no less than two million people in France in recent years. Long Covid continues to raise many questions, particularly within the scientific community. How can we explain the persistence of Covid-19 symptoms more than three months after contamination with the virus? Two recent studies provide essential information on the causes of this syndrome.
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The first of this study – published this Friday September 22 in the magazine The Lancet Respiratory Medicine – evokes the significant consequences of a long Covid on the organs of the human body. During a press conference, Christopher Brightling, co-author of the study, claims to have “concrete evidence that different organs undergo changes” after hospitalization linked to long-term Covid. A patient infected for several months suffers from persistent symptoms – cough, fever, and among other things fatigue – which put a strain on his body.
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The researchers therefore analyzed nearly 259 MRI scans carried out on patients who had been hospitalized in 2020 and 2021. These images were compared to examinations which were carried out on patients who had never been infected with the virus. According to the study, nearly a third of patients who had been infected with the virus presented “abnormalities” in several organs such as the brain, lungs, kidneys, heart and even the liver.
From “hormonal abnormalities”
All the more worrying since a week earlier, a previous study shared by Inserm affirmed that a prolonged Covid-19 infection could also have consequences – serious – on our brain. In a press release published on September 15, researchers explain that a certain type of hormone, secreted by our brain, would be the cause of cognitive decline when it comes into contact with Covid-19. Normally, this type of hormone – gonadotropin-releasing hormone (GnRH) – functions to regulate human reproductive functions such as “puberty, the acquisition of secondary sexual characteristics and fertility in adulthood”, explain the researchers. .
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But after infection with the virus, scientists detected “hormonal abnormalities”, not without consequences: these were the cause of a “cognitive decline” observed in many patients. Traces of virus have also been spotted in certain regions of the brain of infected people: these are believed to be responsible for the death of numerous neurons. “These results can be worrying on several points with regard to the role of these neurons in reproduction and their involvement in certain cognitive functions,” laments Vincent Prévot, research director at Inserm and co-author of the study. The scientists therefore called for “generalizing medical monitoring of people with persistent symptoms following infection by Covid-19”.
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