Researchers using advanced brain imaging are first to find increase in protein marker of inflammation in illness affecting 200 million globally
TORONTO, June 1, 2023 /CNW/ – A new CAMH study published in the journal JAMA Psychiatry found elevated levels of inflammation in the brain of patients who report persistent symptoms of long COVID.
Using advanced brain scanning with positron emission tomography (PET) imaging agents developed exclusively by the CAMH Brain Health Imaging Centre, study senior author Dr. Jeffrey Meyer and his study team found elevated levels of the protein TSPO, a brain marker of inflammation, in patients with onset of depression within several months after a COVID-19 infection.
“We already knew that there is brain inflammation in people who died in the midst of a severe, active COVID-19 infection. What’s new about this study is that it shows that inflammation is hanging around for a long time in the brains of people with long COVID even after only mild to moderate symptoms of active COVID-19,” said Dr. Meyer, Head of the Neuroimaging Program in Mood & Anxiety at the Campbell Family Mental Health Research Institute at CAMH. “Inflammation in the brain was suspected of being the critical step in causing neurological and psychiatric symptoms of long COVID so confirming this is vital to develop treatments for people experiencing symptoms.”
It is generally believed that the majority of the world’s population has experienced at least one acute episode of COVID-19, and that at least 5 per cent of those people—more than 200 million globally—may experience lingering neurological symptoms, including depression, loss of enjoyment, memory impairment, slower motor control, low motivation and energy, for months to even years due to brain inflammation from long COVID.
As part of this study, 20 participants underwent brain scanning with specialized PET imaging designed to detect the presence of elevated levels of the TSPO protein. All had at least one documented acute episode of COVID-19 after which they reported symptoms of depression that continued for months. Most participants also experienced a variety of other lingering symptoms associated with long COVID, including extreme fatigue and problems with concentration and memory often referred to as ‘brain fog’.
“What’s also noteworthy is that the regions of the brain that had the most inflammation are the ones involved in the capacity to enjoy things, motivational energy and the ability to think and move quickly. These were often the symptoms of greatest concern among the people with long COVID who took part in the study,” added Dr. Meyer.
In a pioneering 2015 study published in JAMA Psychiatry, Dr. Meyer found that the brains of people with depression had more inflammation—30 per cent more on average—than the brains of people who were not depressed. The greater the inflammation, the more severe the depression. It was the first time an association between depression and brain inflammation had been found. This research was so ground-breaking that it became one of the most highly cited international research studies ever produced to date by CAMH.
Dr. Meyer and his team believe that further study of the association between brain inflammation and depression, as well as further study on the short and long-term impacts of COVID-19 on the brain, could lead to new treatments for long COVID that would also be purposed for depression and other illnesses. “For people who have been suffering from long COVID with lingering symptoms of depression, the hope is that we can use anti-inflammatory medications to see if we can get a reduction in symptoms,” said study first author Dr. Joeffre Braga. “Since inflammation can be in response to injury, it might also give us insight into mechanisms of brain injury in neurodegenerative diseases like Parkinson’s and prompt therapeutic development.”
This study was funded by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR).
About the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH)
CAMH is Canada’s largest mental health and addiction teaching hospital and a world leading research centre in this field. CAMH combines clinical care, research, education, policy development and health promotion to help transform the lives of people affected by mental illness and addiction. CAMH is fully affiliated with the University of Toronto, and is a Pan American Health Organization/World Health Organization Collaborating Centre. For more information, please visit camh.ca or follow @CAMHnews on Twitter.
SOURCE Centre for Addiction and Mental Health
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Some Ontario doctors have started offering a free shot that can protect babies from respiratory syncytial virus while Quebec will begin its immunization program next month.
The new shot called Nirsevimab gives babies antibodies that provide passive immunity to RSV, a major cause of serious lower respiratory tract infections for infants and seniors, which can cause bronchiolitis or pneumonia.
Ontario’s ministry of health says the shot is already available at some doctor’s offices in Ontario with the province’s remaining supply set to arrive by the end of the month.
Quebec will begin administering the shots on Nov. 4 to babies born in hospitals and delivery centers.
Parents in Quebec with babies under six months or those who are older but more vulnerable to infection can also book immunization appointments online.
The injection will be available in Nunavut and Yukon this fall and winter, though administration start dates have not yet been announced.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 21, 2024.
-With files from Nicole Ireland
Canadian Press health coverage receives support through a partnership with the Canadian Medical Association. CP is solely responsible for this content.
ISLAMABAD (AP) — Polio cases are rising ahead of a new vaccination campaign in Pakistan, where violence targeting health workers and the police protecting them has hampered years of efforts toward making the country polio-free.
Since January, health officials have confirmed 39 new polio cases in Pakistan, compared to only six last year, said Anwarul Haq of the National Emergency Operation Center for Polio Eradication.
The new nationwide drive starts Oct. 28 with the aim to vaccinate at least 32 million children. “The whole purpose of these campaigns is to achieve the target of making Pakistan a polio-free state,” he said.
Pakistan regularly launches campaigns against polio despite attacks on the workers and police assigned to the inoculation drives. Militants falsely claim the vaccination campaigns are a Western conspiracy to sterilize children.
Most of the new polio cases were reported in the southwestern Balochistan and southern Sindh province, following by Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province and eastern Punjab province.
The locations are worrying authorities since previous cases were from the restive northwest bordering Afghanistan, where the Taliban government in September suddenly stopped a door-to-door vaccination campaign.
Afghanistan and Pakistan are the two countries in which the spread of the potentially fatal, paralyzing disease has never been stopped. Authorities in Pakistan have said that the Taliban’s decision will have major repercussions beyond the Afghan border, as people from both sides frequently travel to each other’s country.
The World Health Organization has confirmed 18 polio cases in Afghanistan this year, all but two in the south of the country. That’s up from six cases in 2023. Afghanistan used a house-to-house vaccination strategy this June for the first time in five years, a tactic that helped to reach the majority of children targeted, according to WHO.
Health officials in Pakistan say they want the both sides to conduct anti-polio drives simultaneously.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Millions of people with private health insurance would be able to pick up over-the-counter methods like condoms, the “morning after” pill and birth control pills for free under a new rule the White House proposed on Monday.
Right now, health insurers must cover the cost of prescribed contraception, including prescription birth control or even condoms that doctors have issued a prescription for. But the new rule would expand that coverage, allowing millions of people on private health insurance to pick up free condoms, birth control pills, or “morning after” pills from local storefronts without a prescription.
The proposal comes days before Election Day, as Vice President Kamala Harris affixes her presidential campaign to a promise of expanding women’s health care access in the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to undo nationwide abortion rights two years ago. Harris has sought to craft a distinct contrast from her Republican challenger, Donald Trump, who appointed some of the judges who issued that ruling.
“The proposed rule we announce today would expand access to birth control at no additional cost for millions of consumers,” Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra said in a statement. “Bottom line: women should have control over their personal health care decisions. And issuers and providers have an obligation to comply with the law.”
The emergency contraceptives that people on private insurance would be able to access without costs include levonorgestrel, a pill that needs to be taken immediately after sex to prevent pregnancy and is more commonly known by the brand name “Plan B.”
Without a doctor’s prescription, women may pay as much as $50 for a pack of the pills. And women who delay buying the medication in order to get a doctor’s prescription could jeopardize the pill’s effectiveness, since it is most likely to prevent a pregnancy within 72 hours after sex.
If implemented, the new rule would also require insurers to fully bear the cost of the once-a-day Opill, a new over-the-counter birth control pill that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved last year. A one-month supply of the pills costs $20.
Federal mandates for private health insurance to cover contraceptive care were first introduced with the Affordable Care Act, which required plans to pick up the cost of FDA-approved birth control that had been prescribed by a doctor as a preventative service.
The proposed rule would not impact those on Medicaid, the insurance program for the poorest Americans. States are largely left to design their own rules around Medicaid coverage for contraception, and few cover over-the-counter methods like Plan B or condoms.
