A study by Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia has pointed out that Covid-19 could increase the risk of brain degeneration seen in Parkinson’s disease. According to Richard Smeyne, Director of the Jefferson Comprehensive Parkinson’s Disease and Movement Disorder Center at the Vickie and Jack Farber Institute for Neuroscience and first author of the study, while “the increase in risk is not necessarily a cause for panic…but understanding how coronavirus impacts the brain can help us prepare for the long-term consequences of this pandemic.”
The study, published in the journal Movement Disorders last week, supports the findings of an earlier research which showed how viruses lead to brain cells or neurons becoming more susceptible to damage or death. Scientists in that earlier research studied the impact of H1N1 virus on mice and found they were at an increased risk to MPTP, a toxin known to induce some of Parkinson’s characteristic features such as loss of neurons and increased inflammation in the basal ganglia, a brain region critical for movement.
Researchers in Denmark later replicated the study in humans and found it resulted in similar results, with influenza nearly doubling the risk of developing Parkinson’s disease within 10 years of the initial infection. In the study at Jefferson, researchers used mice that were genetically engineered to express the human ACE-2 receptor, which the SARS-CoV-2 virus — the virus that causes Covid-19 — uses to gain access to the cells in our airway. These mice were infected with SARS-CoV-2 and allowed to recover, following which they were injected with a low dose of MPTP.
The researchers at Jefferson found that while Covid-19 on its own had little impact on dopaminergic neurons in the basal ganglia, the group of mice that were administered MPTP demonstrated the typical pattern of neuron loss seen in Parkinson’s disease. Since increased sensitivity after Covid-19 infection was similar to what was seen in the influenza study, this suggests that both viruses could induce a similar heightened risk for developing Parkinson’s.
When people cannot maintain a safe distance to avoid the spread of Covid-19, a newly designed desktop “air curtain” can block aerosols in exhaled air, researchers found.
An air-curtain is an artificially created stream of moving air – often used to protect patients in operating rooms.
Aerosol particles blown toward the curtain “were observed to bend abruptly toward (a) suction port” without passing through the air curtain, according to AIP Advances.
Even putting an arm through the air curtain did not break the flow or reduce its effectiveness, according to researchers. A high-efficiency particulate air (HEPA) filter can be installed inside the suction port.
At Nagoya University in Japan, researchers tested their new desktop device by simulating a blood collection booth in which a lab technician is close to the patient.
The desktop air curtain system (DACS) has been developed to protect healthcare workers. The DACS is an integrated system consisting of both a discharge and a suction port.
The characteristics of this equipment do not depend on the installation location. More details here
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Written by: Sushmita Choudhury, Tejeesh Nippun Singh, Jayanta Kalita, Prabhash K Dutta Research: Rajesh Sharma
