Abstract:<p>> To understand neurological complications of COVID-19 better both acutely and for recovery, we measured markers of brain injury, inflammatory mediators, and autoantibodies in 203 hospitalised participants; 111 with acute sera (1–11 days post-admission) and 92 convalescent sera (56 with COVID-19-associated neurological diagnoses). Here we show that compared to 60 uninfected controls, [...lots of technical stuff here...] Overall, neurological complications of COVID-19 are associated with evidence of neuroglial injury in both acute and late disease and these correlate with dysregulated innate and adaptive immune responses acutely.<p>So - plenty of "maybe have the lab test his levels of V, W, X, Y, and Z" <i>ideas</i>, for a doctor who is trying to figure out whether or not $Patient is suffering from post-COVID brain injuries. But ~zilch in the way of treatments for $Patient's problems.
There isn't much we can do to see if viruses persist in the brain besides an immediate autopsy(which has its flaws). One promising thing I've seen is scanning someone's brain to see brain cell amyloid plaque formations which may indicate an immune response / protection from these viruses. This also could be a means to better understand other diseases like Alzheimer's.<p>But for other brain researchers with regards to covid/long covid, there isn't strong evidence yet to suggest it can reach the brain outside of the current autopsy studies:<p><a href="https://www.neurology.org/doi/10.1212/nxi.0000000000200097" rel="nofollow">https://www.neurology.org/doi/10.1212/nxi.0000000000200097</a>