Brain Scans Reveal Dopamine Damage in Long COVID, Pointing to New Treatments
New PET imaging research indicates that long COVID patients suffer from damage to the brain's dopamine system. This biological finding may explain persistent symptoms like fatigue, brain fog, and lack of motivation.
Why it matters
Identifying a physical mechanism for long COVID provides a potential target for future medical treatments for millions of sufferers.
New brain imaging research has provided the strongest evidence to date that long COVID is associated with injury to the brain’s dopamine system, offering a potential biological explanation for persistent symptoms such as fatigue, slowed movement, lack of motivation, and memory problems.
The study, published in eBioMedicine by researchers at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health in Canada , used positron emission tomography (PET) imaging to examine dopamine-releasing neurons in people with long COVID. The findings suggest that reduced dopamine nerve terminal density in key brain regions may underlie many of the neurological symptoms experienced by patients and identify a potential therapeutic target for future treatments.
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