Patients with long COVID-19 in the U.S. report far higher rates of brain fog, depression and cognitive symptoms than patients in countries such as India and Nigeria, according to a large international study led by Northwestern Medicine.

The authors note that higher reported symptom burden in the U.S. may reflect lower stigma and greater access to neurological and mental health care, rather than more severe disease.

People with Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (ME/CFS) and Long COVID experience a disruption to their brain connectivity during a mentally demanding task.

A UCLA-led research team demonstrated that when human immune enzymes break up the spike protein of the virus behind COVID-19, some resulting fragments have the ability to punch holes in membranes of human immune cells.

Those fragments target and kill specific cells based on their shape — the same types of sentinel cells and killer cells depleted in severe COVID-19.

Fragments of protein from the omicron variant showed less activity against the immune cells, a finding that may account for why it’s less dangerous than other strains.

A research team at the LKS Faculty of Medicine, the University of Hong Kong (HKUMed), has developed a novel live-attenuated vaccine candidate, cb1, capable of generating broad immunity against a wide range of beta-coronaviruses with a single intranasal dose. The vaccine not only prevents severe disease, but also effectively blocks viral transmission in animal models, offering a promising strategy for pandemic preparedness against future coronavirus threats. The groundbreaking study was published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS).

Osaka Metropolitan University researchers investigated the relationship between Long COVID symptoms and smoking by tobacco product type. The researchers found that certain symptoms correlated with different forms of smoking.

Lockdowns isolated teenagers from friends, disrupted their routines, and kept them at home with daily reports of bad news. So most people assume teenagers felt worse during COVID-19 lockdowns, but a Tokyo study shows the opposite. Scientists at Nagoya University and their collaborators tracked Tokyo teens through the pandemic and found they experienced depression less often during lockdowns than during normal school life. Published in PLOS Medicine, the study found two groups that experienced depression differently. Both felt better during lockdown, but brain scans showed biological differences between them. 

A study by The University of Osaka reveals that people who have had COVID-19 are more likely to wear masks. This is driven not by fear, but by an increased awareness of being a potential "silent carrier." The finding suggests that public health messages based on patients' real experiences, highlighting the risk of asymptomatic spread, could be more effective in encouraging preventive behaviors in the general population for future pandemics.

There has been a lasting and disproportionate impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on diagnosis rates for conditions including depression, asthma and osteoporosis.

In a multi-institutional study published today in Nature Nanotechnology, researchers from The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center reported that engineered bispecific nanobodies successfully strengthened mucosal defenses in the respiratory tract, improving protection against influenza infection and reducing SARS-CoV-2 transmission in vivo.

Osaka Metropolitan University researchers conducted two surveys on young carers aged 15 to 19 across Japan during and after the COVID-19 pandemic to clarify how caregiving burdens affect their psychology and emotions.