Western University research finds vaccination may reduce memory loss due to COVID-19

The university researched the possible mechanism resulting in memory loss due to COVID-19 infection and how the vaccination can ease these symptoms.

Study in Canada: During the COVID-19 pandemic, nearly 10% to 30% of general people complained of brain fog, memory loss, troubling concentration and some form of virus-induced cognitive impairment. Western University researchers studied these issues and found a specific protein is responsible for these changes.

The researchers at Western and Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, Missouri also studied at how Covid-19 vaccination may help reduce the memory loss caused by the Covid-19 infection.

Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry professor Dr. Robyn Klein, who holds the Canada Excellence Research Chair in Neurovirology and Neuroimmunology said, “We looked carefully at their brains during acute infection and then later after recovery to discover what was abnormal in terms of the different immune cells trafficking into the brain and their effects on neural cells."

She said that the reports of cognitive impairment during the COVID-19 days of the pandemic were concerning and it led them to study whether the COVID-19 virus is invading the central nervous system.

“We had previously shown that the virus could not be detected in human or hamster brains, and this study also showed that the virus was not invading the central nervous system,” said Klein.

The findings suggested that some other mechanism is leading to memory loss. The researchers investigated how vaccinated people were impacted and found that those who were vaccinated experienced less impact of memory loss.

More research is needed to fully understand link between vaccination and memory loss

Klein said that to completely understand the link between the COVID-19 vaccination and memory loss due to Covid-19 infection, more research is needed.

“We know there’s anecdotal evidence that humans who’ve been vaccinated have a much lower risk of developing this long COVID brain fog,” said Klein.

However, she also stressed that the vaccination used in the study is not the same as those that were administered on people.

"Vaccination is about lowering the risk of the impacts of infection, not completely preventing infection. For example, a vaccine can protect individuals from developing severe pneumonia, but that doesn’t mean it completely protects against pneumonia. The same is likely true for cognitive impacts" she added.

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