Western professor Dr. Robyn Klein co-authored a study identifying a particular protein that seems to be responsible for memory loss linked to COVID-19.
Since the
Klein said she was concerned by reports of cognitive impairment in the early days of the pandemic, which led researchers to question whether the virus was invading the central nervous system. Klein’s previous work studied viruses that invade the brain.
“We had previously shown that the virus could not be detected in human or hamster brains, and this study also showed that the virus was not invading the central nervous system,” said Klein. The finding means some other mechanism is leading to cognitive impairment.
The team identified