Proteins associated with blood clots during COVID -19 identified

Study, published in Nature Medicine finds a link between cognitive deficits that last up to a year after infection and two blood clotting proteins, fibrinogen and D-dimer

LONDON – Scientists have identified proteins that lead to blood clots during COVID -19 infections and are responsible for brain fog.

Brain fog is responsible for not being able to concentrate and loss of memory.

The study, published in Nature Medicine, found a link between cognitive deficits that last up to a year after infection and two blood clotting proteins, fibrinogen and D-dimer.

For the study, Maxime Taquet of the University of Oxford and his team analyzed data from thousands of adult COVID -19 patients admitted to a U.K. hospital in 2020 and 2021.

They discovered that patients with higher fibrinogen levels during hospitalization had more cognitive problems later on.

 For example, six months after hospitalization, this group reported about worse cognitive problems compared with patients with lower fibrinogen levels.

In addition, elevated blood D-dimer levels at six and 12 months after hospitalization were also indicative of cognitive problems.

Individuals with high D-dimer levels reported fatigue, difficulty breathing, and difficulty continuing to work.

Further analysis using a U.S. health database confirmed these findings and linked elevated fibrinogen or D-dimer levels during hospitalization COVID -19 with cognitive problems six months later.

According to Taquet, fibrinogen could form blood clots that affect cerebral blood flow or interact directly with the nervous system.

D-dimer, on the other hand, could indicate blood clots in the lungs, which could explain the association with breathing problems.

As for treatment, there is no strong evidence that treating these proteins or blood clotting can prevent Long Covid.

Anticoagulants have been proposed, but they have not yet been tested in extensive clinical trials and may pose a risk to some patients.