Share this page!

Enter URL or ID to Unroll

You can paste full URL like: https://x.com/threadreaderapp/status/1644127596119195649
or just the ID like: 1644127596119195649

How to get URL link on X (Twitter) App

  1. On the Twitter thread, click on or icon on the bottom
  2. Click again on or Share Via icon
  3. Click on Copy Link to Tweet
  4. Paste it above and click "Unroll Thread"!
  5. More info at Twitter Help
Brain Inflammation Collaborative Profile picture
Brain Inflammation Collaborative
@BrainInflCollab
We are organizing a coordinated research effort to revolutionize the diagnosis and treatment of #neuroinflammation illnesses and #mentalhealth symptoms.
11 subscribers
Jun 28 • 9 tweets • 4 min read
Low-dose nicotine can help alleviate Long COVID symptoms.

Could this explain why?🧵 ID: Screenshot of a Reddit comment section of long COVID patients revealing that nicotine helped alleviate their symptoms. To understand the nicotine hypothesis, we must start with the spike protein.

The SARS-CoV-2 spike protein contains a region similar to neurotoxic proteins found in:
- Rabies virus
- Cobra venom
- Indian krait snake venom

These neurotoxic proteins work by binding and blocking the nicotinic acetylcholine receptors (nAChR) from functioning.

Can the spike protein do the same?ID: Image of an Indian krait snake.
ID: Cartoon image revealing how ACh activates the NAChR and how some venoms do the opposite by blocking the NAChR.
Jun 25 • 7 tweets • 2 min read
Autoantibodies can cause psychosis-like conditions such as:
- delusions
- hallucinations
- impaired thinking or reasoning

But there is a problem.

Brain-attacking autoantibodies unknown to science would be nearly impossible to detect.

Here is how that could change...🧵 ID: Infographic of a quote from Dr. Sam Pleasure explaining, "we think a fraction of patients with psychosis actually have an autoimmune syndrome. Those patients need to be treated very differently from a typical schizophrenia patient, but right now, there's not a clear way to distinguish between them." 🧠 Psychosis & Autoantibodies:
Up to 10% of schizophrenia spectrum disorder patients have been reported to contain an autoantibody called anti-NMDAR that targets the brain, causing autoimmune encephalitis (AE) (autoantibody-driven neuroinflammation) (1).

However, only a few autoantibodies targeting the brain are known to science.

What if there are more?
Jun 21 • 5 tweets • 2 min read
Anti-depressants don't work for roughly 30% of people who take them, known as treatment-resistant depression (TRD).

TRD is likely not caused by a neurotransmitter imbalance but by something else...🧵 ID: Decorative image of electricity radiating from a brain shown as tiny balls of light connected to the brain by thin lines of light. Researchers believe they have identified a cause of TRD: chronic inflammation.

Roughly 1/3 of patients with TRD are chronically inflamed.

Reducing the inflammation is associated with reduced depression... ID: Infographic quote from Dr. Golam Khandaker and immunopsychiatrist from the University of Bristol saying, "about 1/3 of patients who are resistant to antidepressants show evidence of inflammation... anti-inflammatory treatments could be relevant for a large number of people who suffer from depression."
Jun 19 • 6 tweets • 3 min read
Long COVID in adults is characterized by (protein) markers of:
- inflammation
- blood vessel clotting

However, similar studies in pediatric cohorts are almost non-existent... until now.

This study suggests that pediatric Long COVID is characterized by unique pathophysiology and isn't stress- or anxiety-induced...🧵ID: Image of a little girl laying in bed under the covers who looks like she feels ill. Her hand in placed on her forehead to check if she feels warm. To the left is an image of a brain MRI suggesting her illness is neurological in nature. \ The Study:
Scientists from the University of Rome and Fondazione Policlinico Universitario discovered that 34 children and adolescents between the ages of 2 and 18 have an abundance of pro-inflammatory cytokines in their blood.

A subset of the cytokines have angiogenic (blood vessel growth-promoting) properties.

Read more: buff.ly/7NN1lyZID: A screenshot of the first page of the pediatric long COVID paper published in Nature.
Jun 12 • 8 tweets • 3 min read
It's estimated that 5.8 million young people have Long COVID. (1)

A recent study revealed that 65 of 92 (71%) children with Long COVID had a form of orthostatic intolerance, including postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome (POTS) (2).

Here is one powerful way the connection between POTS and pediatric Long COVID is being investigated...🧵ID: Close up image of a young girl dressed in black standing in front of a black background staring hopelessly into the camera with sad eyes. Being a kid today is hard enough.

They are forced to navigate:
- a highly polarized world
- technology overload
- cyberbullying
- etc.

If that weren't hard enough, the data suggests (1) a large subset of kids also have to manage their lifestyle-altering chronic health condition...Long COVID.

But wait, there is more.ID: A female teenager stands with arms folded staring helplessly at the ground with ear buds in her ears so she can ignore her two peers, standing on either side of her with their arms out and fingers waving in her face.
Jun 10 • 7 tweets • 2 min read
After two SARS-CoV-2 infections, Heather Carr became largely bed-bound and nearly unable to string together a basic train of thought.

“I cry when I try to think, now,” she said. “My brain short-circuits.”

Census data suggests there are millions more just like her in the U.S...🧵ID: Image of 31 year old Heather Carr sitting outside with her hand propping up her head as she sits hunched over wearing an N95 mask with the look of physical exhaustion on her face. The Census Bureau's monthly Current Population Survey asks Americans if they have serious problems with their memory or concentration.

Respondents are classified as disabled if they answer yes.

Although there is no disability insurance (financial) incentive, the number answering "yes" has increased by 1.5 million since the pandemic (red line).Image
Jun 8 • 8 tweets • 3 min read
April Burrell lived in a psychiatric hospital for 20 years.

Her catatonic state left her immobile and unresponsive.

But after 2 decades, she suddenly woke up.

Here is why..🧵 ID: Image of April Durrell as a healthy young women superimposed on a pink image of her attempting to draw a clock when she was sick compared to when she received treatment. At the age of 21, April, a high school valedictorian and accounting major at the University of Maryland Eastern Shore, suddenly developed a severe form of schizophrenia.

Her psychosis caused visual and auditory hallucinations.

Unable to take care of herself, she was admitted to a psychiatric hospital.

Read more here:
washingtonpost.com/wellness/2023/…
Jun 1 • 5 tweets • 2 min read
A new study on COVID-19’s cognitive impact shows:
- 3-point IQ drop for recovered mild cases
- 6-point IQ drop for Long COVID cases
- 9-point IQ drop for ICU patients

Reinfections may worsen the effect, adding a 2-point IQ hit...🧵 ID: Image of a hovering brain in the air as it spontaneously shatters into smaller pieces. These cognitive deficits, linked to memory, reasoning, and executive function, persist for a year or more in some.

Although a 3-point drop is subtle, akin to mild fatigue, a 6-point loss could make complex tasks noticeably harder.

Read more here:
unmc.edu/healthsecurity…Image
May 30 • 14 tweets • 5 min read
An Epstein-Barr Virus (EBV) infection increases your susceptibility to developing multiple sclerosis (MS), among other chronic conditions such as:
- Celiac disease
- Long COVID
- Sjogren's
- ME/CFS
- Lupus
- POTS

A new study might have discovered why (at least for MS)...🧵 ID: Decorative image of virus on a blue green backdrop A group of Italian researchers discovered that a single copy of the HLA-E*01:01 gene, in addition to a documented history of mono, increases your odds of developing MS by 74%.

The HLA-E*01:01 gene alone did not increase the risk of MS.

This was determined from analyzing 487,114 individuals from the UK BioBank cohort.

Here's what this suggests, in simple terms.

Read more here:
buff.ly/ZEqHmdJ
May 24 • 10 tweets • 3 min read
Neuroinflammation can lead to repetitive movements similar to those observed in:
- Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD)
- Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD)

New evidence suggests it might be (partly) fixable with FDA-approved drugs...🧵 ID: An image of an MRI brain scan with a finger pointing to a specific region near the left rear side of the brain. South Korean researchers found that two FDA-approved drugs can reverse these repetitive movements:
- Memantine - licensed for Alzherimers
- Interleukin-1RA (Anakinra) - licensed for rheumatoid arthritis

Here are the details... simplified.

.neurosciencenews.com/inflammation-a…
May 16 • 7 tweets • 2 min read
Data suggest there is a broken ion channel on the surface of white blood cells in patients with (1):
- Long COVID
- ME/CFS

New evidence suggests it can be fixed.

Here is how...🧵 ID: Cartoon image of a plasma membrane with a cylindrical ion channel embedded among phospholipids. Research from Dr. Sonya Marshall-Gradisnik in Brisbane, Australia, verified that Long COVID patients, like ME/CFS patients, have a dysfunctional calcium ion channel called TRPM3(1).

The function of this ion channel can be restored with low-dose naltrexone (LDN) in ME/CFS-isolated immune cells (1).

New evidence suggests the same for Long COVID patients (a provisional publication shown in the image).ID: Screenshot of the newly published paper suggesting that LDN can restore the function of an ion channel expressed by natural killer cells of patients with Long COVID.
May 10 • 7 tweets • 2 min read
Want to ensure that NIH grant funding prioritizes medical research for Long COVID?

Here is how you can help...🧵 ID: Decorative image of a different planes of an MRI brain scan on a teal background. But first, here is the issue.

HHS budget cuts have been recently proposed.

This is important because the HHS budget funds the:
- NIH
- CDC

These cuts likely wouldn't be minor.

A proposed $40 billion HHS cut was made by the current administration, which could slash the NIH budget from $47 billion to $27 billion.

ajmc.com/view/prelimina…
May 6 • 16 tweets • 4 min read
Infection-associated chronic conditions and illnesses (IACCIs) affect tens of millions of U.S. citizens (1).

This includes (but is not limited to):
- Chronic Lyme
- Long COVID
- ME/CFS
- MCAS
- POTS
- PANS

Yet there are no cures.

This is why science moves slowly and how to supercharge it...🧵ID: Decorative image of a researcher pointing to a anomaly on a brain scan. Obviously, many of these IACCIs have experienced decades of underfunding.

But let's set the lack of funding aside and look behind the "biomedical research curtain" so you, the patient, can understand how research works.

This will help you understand the research bottlenecks... and how to fix them.
Apr 29 • 10 tweets • 2 min read
🚨 BIG NEWS 🚨
We are supercharging clinical research on ME/CFS, Long COVID, and other infection-associated chronic conditions by teaming up with:
1. Solve M.E.
2. CareEvolution
3. Complex Disorders Alliance (formerly Metrodora Foundation)
4. ChronicleBio

Here is why this is a win-win for patients...🧵Image 2/ Faster Diagnoses

By pooling decades of patient-reported data, we’re helping doctors better understand ME/CFS, Long COVID, and infection-associated chronic conditions, so patients get answers sooner.
Apr 26 • 9 tweets • 3 min read
Neuroinflammation is a hallmark of many conditions, including, but not limited to:
- Autoimmune Encephalitis
- Traumatic Brain Injury
- Long COVID
- ME/CFS
- MS
- etc.

This immune cell, at the base of the skull, was found to reduce neuroinflammation.

Here is how...🧵 ID: Image of a brain MRI Harvard scientists discovered that regulatory T cells (Tregs) sitting between the skull and brain (meninges) prevent inflammatory immune cells from entering the brain and making a proinflammatory molecule called interferon-gamma.

This protects against neuroinflammation and short-term memory loss.

Read the study here:
science.org/doi/10.1126/sc…
Apr 24 • 4 tweets • 1 min read
A recent study "estimated that 5.8 million young people have Long COVID." (1)

Let's put these numbers into perspective...🧵

cbsnews.com/video/millions… It would take about 71 average-sized professional football stadiums to seat 5.8 million children.

To get them there, you’d need 80,556 buses to transport them.

If you lined up each bus from end to end, it would stretch 610 miles, about the distance from Dallas to Denver (or from Munich to Paris for our European friends).
Apr 20 • 11 tweets • 4 min read
A new study just revealed how psychologically damaging it is to tell a patient that their symptoms are in their head.

Here is what they found...🧵 ID: Quote from a patient interview where the patient said, "‘I still get stressed and weepy … My GP told me I was depressed when in fact I was having seizures … This has caused me so much stress and upset and anger. I’m still very angry and am crying now as I type. I have nowhere to voice this anger’ "More than 80% of [systemic autoimmune rheumatic disease] patients reported that having their symptoms dismissed as... psychological, along with comments like "it's in your head," harmed their self-worth. For 72%, the experience remained upsetting even decades later."

Read more here:
medscape.com/viewarticle/au…ID: screenshot of another patient quote where they said, "People are told it’s because they are anxious that they’re having these symptoms but actually I think it’s because they’re having the symptoms they’re experiencing the anxiety"
Apr 16 • 7 tweets • 2 min read
In 2017 Alina Sternberg, a psychiatrist, was hit with crushing fatigue and brain fog.

Neurologists told her the symptoms were caused by depression.

"No, I can enjoy my life and I know what depression is... I’m a psychiatrist!”

It took another long 6 years to discover the culprit...🧵ID: Decorative image of a suspended disintegrating brain as what appear to be brain fragments fly in two directions away from the brain. Alina's symptoms became progressively worse.

By 2023 she spent most of her days in bed.

Not only was she hit with soul-crushing fatigue but her memory deteriorated.

One day she forgot her way home, a place she had lived for 20 years.
Apr 10 • 11 tweets • 3 min read
One of the biggest discoveries in diagnosing brain inflammation was recently made, and nobody is talking about it.

Here's how it works and why it could be a game changer...🧵 ID: Colorful image of an MRI brain scan visualizing transverse cross sections of the human brain. \ The Discovery:
Researchers from the National Institute of Health used positron emission tomography (PET) imaging to measure the activity of an enzyme, COX-2, involved in inflammation.

COX-2 levels are acutly elevated in response to inflammation.

And COX-2 activity contributes to inflammation.

It's the same enzyme that ibuprofen inhibits.

Here's how it works.Image
Mar 31 • 4 tweets • 2 min read
67% of 2,314 Long COVID patients surveyed reported symptoms of a dysregulated autonomic nervous system such as:
- A drop in blood pressure when standing
- Brain fog or cognitive disturbances
- Dizziness or light-headedness
- Heartbeat irregularities
- Gastrointestinal issues
- Tingling or numbness
- Bladder dysfunction
- Shortness of breath
- Sleep disturbances
- Chest pain
- Fatigue

This translates to 38 million Americans with Long COVID dysautonomia.

But there is a problem...🧵ID: Illustration of a person with the central and peripheral nervous system visible throughout the body. "There are only 52 doctors in the US who are board certified in autonomic disorders and fewer than 50 dysautonomia specialty centers throughout the US equipped to diagnose, treat and study dysautonomia."

Read more here:
einpresswire.com/article/570476…
Mar 28 • 8 tweets • 4 min read
Inhaling this gas has been reported to:
- modulate the immune system
- mitigate oxidative stress
- reduce inflammation

It's been proposed as a COVID-19 treatment(1).

But could it also help those with Long COVID?

(hint: it's not oxygen). ID: Image of a woman laying in a hospital bed with her eyes closed and an oxygen mask on her face. High carbon dioxide (CO2) in your blood can be lethal.

But, low levels of CO2 in your blood is also harmful, causing (1):
- increased free radical production
- reduced cerebral blood flow
- worsened inflammation