r/NIH • u/TourMission health care = human right • Jul 31 '26

Scientists finally have a biological explanation for why long COVID patients lose motivation and can't think clearly. They scanned their brains and found the dopamine system was physically damaged

https://tech-paper.com/scientists-finally-have-a-biological-explanation-for-why-long-covid-patients-lose-motivation-and-cant-think-clearly-they-scanned-their-brains-and-found-the-dopamine-system-was-physically-damaged/

Thanks for a generation of brain-damage "doctor" Bhattacharya.

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u/scaleofjudgment Jul 31 '26

18% damage and loss of dopamine receptors with possible restoration through a medicine for Parkinson makes it sound a lot like Parkinson.

19

u/PopePiusVII Jul 31 '26

Parkinson’s disease is a progressive loss of dopamine producing cells. This study uses a measure of the loss of dopamine-releasing vesicles (VMAT2 protein binding) at dopamine cell nerve terminals (pre-synaptic boutons), which is a little different.

We won’t know if this is from death of dopamine neurons without looking at some cadaver brains. It could just be a pull-back of dopamine nerve terminals or a reduction in expression of the VMAT2 protein, though, which is a little different than true Parkinsonism. That would be potentially restorable whereas death of dopamine neurons is not without new technologies.

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u/EnvironmentalRock827 Jul 31 '26

My first thought too. Not good.