Zdenek Vrozina Profile picture
Jan 16 7 tweets 2 min read Read on X
One of the strongest - and most concerning - studies so far. A true before/after design, a clear tau signal in persistent neurological symptoms, and nearly half exceeding Alzheimer’s research pTau-181 thresholds🧵
Related evidence. A large UK Biobank longitudinal analysis in Nature Medicine - Duff et al., 2025 -compared plasma Alzheimer’s-related biomarkers before vs after SARS-CoV-2 infection (with matched controls).
They found that SARS-CoV-2 infection was associated with a shift toward an AD-like biomarker profile - notably a reduced plasma Aβ42:Aβ40 ratio, and in more vulnerable participants lower Aβ42 and higher pTau-181.
Taken together with the new N-PASC pTau-181 findings, the message is consistent - across different cohorts and designs, SARS-CoV-2 can be followed by measurable changes in biomarkers linked to neurodegenerative pathways.
Lancet eBioMedicine shows a pTau-181 signal in neurological long COVID.
Nature Medicine shows post–SARS-CoV-2 shifts in AD-related biomarkers, including pTau-181, in vulnerable groups.
Different cohorts. Same warning signal.
Ignoring converging tau and amyloid signals reported by Lancet and Nature is not caution - it risks becoming the public health error of the century. @szupraha @ZdravkoOnline @adamvojtech86
Duff at al., Plasma proteomic evidence for increased β-amyloid pathology after SARS-CoV-2 infection. nature.com/articles/s4159…

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More from @ZdenekVrozina

Jan 20
Four years after infection, most people treated for long COVID in a specialist clinic still hadn’t returned to their previous level of health🧵
This prospective cohort study followed 3,590 people with long COVID for up to four years in a specialist post-COVID clinic in London.
Most patients were not hospitalised during their acute infection, the majority were working-age adults, and nearly two-thirds were women.
The most common symptoms were
fatigue (80%)
breathlessness (68%)
brain fog (54%)
muscle pain, sleep disturbance, and autonomic symptoms
Patients typically reported multiple symptoms at once (median = five).
Read 18 tweets
Jan 19
Severe COVID doesn’t end with a negative test.
In the worst cases, we see epigenetic rewiring of genes that control mitochondria - the cell’s energy system. And once that switch flips, it doesn’t always flip back🧵
This isn’t a random epigenetic signal.
The changes concentrate in promoters of genes controlling respiratory chain complexes I and IV - the core machinery that turns oxygen and nutrients into usable energy (ATP).
Complex I is especially critical.
It’s the main entry point for electrons into mitochondrial respiration.
When its regulation is disturbed, cells make less ATP and more oxidative stress - a combination that accelerates cellular failure.
Read 21 tweets
Jan 18
A new study in Journal of Clinical Medicine shows that after COVID-19, many patients have persistent impairment of oxygen transfer in the lungs (DLCO/KCO) - lasting 12 to 22 months, even when basic spirometry looks almost normal🧵
Key point?
FEV1 remains largely stable, while FVC improves only slowly over time.
This doesn’t look like classic airway obstruction. It points instead to restrictive and diffusion-level damage.
In simple terms.
Patients may breathe fine on spirometry, yet oxygen doesn’t pass efficiently from the lungs into the blood.
Read 15 tweets
Jan 14
In people with neurological long COVID, infection is followed by a significant increase in pTau-181, and in a subset this is accompanied by changes in amyloid markers!
This biomarker pattern is compatible with tau-related pathology and may point to a worse long-term prognosis🧵
A new prospective study in eBioMedicine followed 227 individuals with blood samples collected before and after COVID-19.
That matters - this isn’t a cross-sectional snapshot, but a true within-person biological change after infection.
The focus was neurological PASC (N-PASC). Persistent symptoms like brain fog, loss of smell/taste, dizziness, balance problems, behavioral changes.
Only this group showed a marked post-COVID rise in pTau-181!
Read 15 tweets
Jan 14
For years, Epstein–Barr virus (EBV) has been linked to multiple sclerosis.
The association was strong.
But the mechanism remained frustratingly abstract - until now.🧵
This new paper in Cell (2026) finally does what’s been missing.
It doesn’t just connect EBV and MS statistically -
it shows how the immune system gets it wrong.
Instead of focusing on antibodies, the authors look at CD4+ T cells.
Long-lived memory cells.
The ones that shape immune behavior over decades.
Read 20 tweets
Jan 13
People with Long COVID often describe brain fog, mental fatigue, slowed thinking.
For a long time, we lacked direct biological evidence that something measurable was wrong in the brain.
Now we have one🧵
This new study used 31P magnetic resonance spectroscopy.
Unlike standard MRI, it doesn’t look at brain structure - it looks at cellular energy metabolism.
Specifically, it measures the balance between
ATP, the cell’s immediate energy currency
phosphocreatine (PCr), a fast energy reserve - basically a buffer/backup battery
Read 18 tweets

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