{"id":11233,"date":"2026-01-14T19:08:30","date_gmt":"2026-01-15T01:08:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/?p=11233"},"modified":"2026-01-14T19:08:32","modified_gmt":"2026-01-15T01:08:32","slug":"alzheimers-protein-detected-in-long-covid-patients","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/2026\/01\/14\/alzheimers-protein-detected-in-long-covid-patients\/","title":{"rendered":"Alzheimer\u2019s Protein Detected in Long COVID Patients"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"panel body-content\"><div class=\"panel__container\">\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/respiratory-therapy.com\/disorders-diseases\/infectious-diseases\/coronavirus\/alzheimers-protein-detected-in-long-covid-patients\/\">Respiratory Therapy<\/a> <em>Patients with neurocognitive difficulties post COVID-19 infection displayed a significant increase in their blood plasma of a crucial protein linked to neurodegenerative diseases and found in many Alzheimer\u2019s patients.<\/em> A study of 227 individuals who experienced neurocognitive difficulties post COVID-19 infection \u2013 such as headaches, vertigo, balance dysregulation, changes in taste\/smell, and brain fog \u2013 displayed a significant increase in their blood plasma of a crucial protein called&nbsp;<em>tau<\/em>, which is found in nerves and especially in the brain. Excess levels of tau are linked to neurodegenerative diseases and found in many Alzheimer\u2019s patients.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Published this month in&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.sciencedirect.com\/science\/article\/pii\/S2352396425005560\">eBioMedicine<\/a>, the study suggests that people who experience Long COVID neurocognitive symptoms could be at further risk for neurodegenerative diseases.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The research involves ongoing blood biomarker studies of 9\/11 World Trade Center (WTC) responders who are monitored by clinicians and researchers at the&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.stonybrookmedicine.edu\/WTC\">Stony Brook WTC Health and Wellness Program<\/a>. The research team analyzed plasma samples taken prior to the participants\u2019 COVID-19 infections and many months to years after having COVID-19. They measured a specific tau protein, pTau-181, which stands for phosphorylated tau, an abnormal type associated with dementia patients.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Respiratory Therapy Patients with neurocognitive difficulties post COVID-19 infection displayed a significant increase in their blood plasma of a crucial protein linked to neurodegenerative diseases and found in many Alzheimer\u2019s patients. A study of 227 individuals who experienced neurocognitive difficulties post COVID-19 infection \u2013 such as headaches, vertigo, balance dysregulation, changes in taste\/smell, and brain [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11233","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-covid"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11233","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11233"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11233\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11234,"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11233\/revisions\/11234"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11233"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11233"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11233"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}