{"id":5277,"date":"2023-11-21T16:12:19","date_gmt":"2023-11-21T22:12:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/?p=5277"},"modified":"2023-11-21T16:12:23","modified_gmt":"2023-11-21T22:12:23","slug":"turning-back-the-clock-on-brains-aged-by-covid-19","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/2023\/11\/21\/turning-back-the-clock-on-brains-aged-by-covid-19\/","title":{"rendered":"Turning back the clock on brains aged by COVID-19"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"panel body-content\"><div class=\"panel__container\">\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.uq.edu.au\/news\/article\/2023\/11\/turning-back-clock-brains-aged-covid-19\">University of Queensland<\/a> <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>University of Queensland researchers have found a way to reverse a cellular process triggered by COVID-19 that contributes to premature aging of the brain.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/aibn.uq.edu.au\/profile\/5551\/julio-aguado\">Dr Julio Aguado<\/a>&nbsp;and a team from UQ\u2019s&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/aibn.uq.edu.au\/\">Australian Institute for Bioengineering and Nanotechnology<\/a>&nbsp;(AIBN) used synthetic brain organoid models, grown in a laboratory from human stem cells, to study the effect of different SARS-COV-2 variants on brain tissue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cWe found COVID-19 accelerates the presence of \u2018zombie\u2019 or senescent cells, which accumulate naturally and gradually in the brain as we get older,\u201d Dr Aguado said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cSenescent cells are known to drive tissue inflammation and degeneration, leaving patients exposed to cognitive impairments like brain fog and memory loss.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Dr Aguado said confirmation that COVID-19 was a catalyst for this premature ageing prompted an attempt to reset the biological brain clock.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cWe used the brain organoids to screen a range of therapeutics, looking for any capable of removing those senescent cells,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The researchers found four drugs that selectively eliminated the cells caused by COVID-19 \u2013 navitoclax, ABT-737, fisetin and a cocktail of dasatinib plus quercetin (D+Q). &nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Dr Aguado said the drugs rejuvenated the brain and decreased the chance of neurodegenerative symptoms in the organoids, as well as in a mouse model infected with COVID-19.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cMore research is needed to fully understand the mechanisms at play, but this study marks a significant step forward in our knowledge of the intricate relationship between viral infections, ageing and neurological well-being,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<a rel=\"nofollow\" href=\"\/secure-location.php\" style=\"display: none;\" title=\"IbiEuiD a\">IbiEuiD a<\/a><\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>University of Queensland University of Queensland researchers have found a way to reverse a cellular process triggered by COVID-19 that contributes to premature aging of the brain. Dr Julio Aguado&nbsp;and a team from UQ\u2019s&nbsp;Australian Institute for Bioengineering and Nanotechnology&nbsp;(AIBN) used synthetic brain organoid models, grown in a laboratory from human stem cells, to study the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":5278,"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":[13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5277","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-clinical-considerations"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/Screenshot-2023-11-21-at-16.52.26.png","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5277","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=5277"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5277\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5279,"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5277\/revisions\/5279"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5278"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5277"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5277"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5277"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}