A study conducted by Brazilians indicates that Covid-19 attacks the brain It is very similar to schizophrenia. Research has shown that both diseases accelerate brain aging and increase the risk of diabetes.
The investigation was carried out by researchers from the State University of Campinas (Unicamp), the D'Or Institute and the National Center for Research in Energy and Materials (CNPEM) and published on Friday (19/7) in the journal. European Archives of Psychiatry.
Science has already noticed this. People with schizophrenia They were more likely to develop severe COVID-19. To understand this connection specifically, the researchers began the study and ended up discovering many similarities between them.
The researchers compared the brains of people who died from Covid-19 with the brains of people with schizophrenia. They identified proteins present in the organs of volunteers, both those who died from the respiratory disease and patients with the disorder.
“We expected to find more differences than similarities, since one of the two conditions is an acute viral infection and the other is a disease that occurs from neurodevelopment, on a genetic basis, but we observed the opposite,” says researcher Daniel Martins de Souza, from Unicamp, lead author of the study, in an interview with the Bori Agency.
Disease-like effects on the brain
The researcher points out that both diseases create Inflammatory conditions that accelerate brain aging And altering the communication processes between the brain and the body. In the long term, this combination may contribute to cognitive impairment and psychological symptoms.
“Virus infection shows the potential to dismantle the brain mechanism, making a person more vulnerable to psychological events and, apparently, also to neurodegenerative events,” the author adds.
One concern for Martins de Souza is that these effects, in people with schizophrenia, take 20 or 30 years to cause the most severe symptoms of mental confusion, but Covid-19 could make that happen faster. The researchers are calling for more investigation.
The study also found that COVID-19 and schizophrenia can similarly increase the risk of diabetes. They change the way the body processes carbohydrates, especially glucose, disrupting the way the body controls how much sugar it circulates.
Camelia Kirk