A new study from the United States suggests that corona disease may be responsible for the lack of dopamine production. Those affected often feel irritable or sad.
Corona is a disease with many faces. Now it may have turned out that the viral disease could also have an impact on our psyche. A lack of happiness hormone production after infection is blamed for this.
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Symptoms such as brain fog and depression can arise
In a study published on “Neuroscience”, American scientists are said to have succeeded in proving that Covid can infect brain cells that are responsible for mood, stress and movement. If this is the case, dopamine production can be so damaged that it stops completely. Dopamine is a neurotransmitter that plays a role in feelings of pleasure, motivation, memory, sleep and movement. Damage to these neurons is also linked to Parkinson’s disease.
If dopamine neurons are infected by SARS-CoV-2, this can potentially lead to Long Covid symptoms such as brain fog and depression. Research shows that these infected neurons can enter a state of biological aging, stop functioning, and cause inflammation.
“The infection rate of dopamine neurons is not as high as that of lung cells, the main target of the virus, but even a small population of infected cells can have potentially serious effects,” said senior author Dr. Shuibing Chen. Interestingly, not all neuronal cell types were susceptible to viral infection. The researchers observed that cortical neurons do not allow SARS-CoV-2 infection under identical experimental conditions. Positive news: At the same time, the researchers were able to provide possible evidence of how the infection of dopamine neurons can be avoided: drugs such as riluzole, metformin and imatinib could protect against it.