[Aurornis]

The headline overstates the findings. The researchers aren't saying that this is the underlying basis of COVID brain fog. They hypothesized that AMPA receptors might be involved. They compared Long COVID patients to controls and found a difference.

This doesn't mean that AMPA receptors are the root cause of post-COVD brain fog, nor does it necessarily mean that drugs modulating AMPA receptors could reverse it. It only shows that this is one of the changes observed in patients reporting post-COVID brain fog. It could be a side effect of some other change or it could be part of a long cascade of changes.

It also needs to be replicated further. I've read at least at dozen headlines claiming to have found the underlying cause of COVID brain fog in the past year and all of them pointed to different biomarkers.

Consider this another piece of the puzzle, not a discovery of the underlying mechanism.

[zdragnar]

It'd be nice to find out if there's any overlap with the "brain fog" from fibromyalgia. My college years would have been far less torturous if I could have lived without that, even if I still had to deal with the pain.

[colechristensen]

There's an assumption going around that idiopathic-ish conditions like fibromyalgia may be caused (or a subset of those with that diagnosis) by long-tail after effects of various infections, COVID-19 being one of many.

[f1shy]

Thanks. I love this comments that spare time for everybody else. But honestly, anything biology/medicine related, you KNOW the title is exaggerated, right out of the bat

[landl0rd]

It does imply AMPA antagonists or NAMs might be of interest to people with this problem, though. I wonder if high-dose L-theanine might be of interest; most of the -ampanel family antagonists are liable to abuse and a little sketchy regarding side effects and *NQX family aren't usable outside lab settings, so limited other options. Memantine might help but itself has anecdotal reports of inducing brain fog.

I'd also remark that their methodology has issues; we do not have a clear etiology or diagnostic criteria for "long covid" and its presentation. Participants had previously been infected (this is essentially everyone) and reported subjective "brain fog" type symptoms which is a terrible way to attempt to isolate anything about this "long covid". It's possible this is just a generalized syndrome that results from behavioral or lifestyle factors. I.e. we have no way to know what is "long covid" versus other things, no way to reliably trust patient history, and no way to know we are seeing that particular type of "brain fog".

[Aurornis]

> It does imply AMPA antagonists or NAMs might be of interest to people with this problem, though

It does not necessarily.

For example, if the increased AMPA density is a counter-regulatory response to reduced baseline AMPA activation, further antagonizing the receptor system would worsen rather than improve the situation.

[landl0rd]

Possible, which is why I said "might be" and brought up that memantine seems to contribute positively to brain fog.

[Terr_]

Sounds like the authors ought to have titled it: "Uncovering a Molecular correlation to Long COVID Brain Fog"

Which can still be extremely useful, for targeting further investigation.

[Aurornis]

To be fair, the real authors of the paper had a much more accurate title: "Systemic increase of AMPA receptors associated with cognitive impairment of Long COVID"

It's the university PR team that exaggerated, as usual.

[Terr_]

https://phdcomics.com/comics/archive.php?comicid=1174

[compass_copium]

>The headline overstates the finding.

On a long covid news article? What are the chances!

[relaxing]

It sounds like you’re reading too much into it.

It doesn’t say root cause, or drug target. It doesn’t say reverse or cure. It quite specifically doesn’t say “the basis”. The word basis doesn’t have to refer to one root cause. It could be something foundational, but there can be many elements of a foundation. It certainly isn’t the entire structure.

I’d argue it’s quite tame as academic press releases go.

[Aurornis]

> It quite specifically doesn’t say “the basis”

The headline quite specifically does say: "Uncovering the Molecular Basis of Long COVID Brain Fog"

The article also implies that AMPA drugs could address COVID brain fog:

> For example, drugs that suppress AMPAR activity could be a viable approach to mitigate brain fog.

This was one of the points I was trying to counter.

It also claims to have "resolved key uncertainties":

> In summary, the team’s findings resolve key uncertainties about the biological basis of Long COVID brain fog

Which is obviously not true. This is only one biomarker, not the resolution to a key uncertainty.

I disagree that I'm reading too much into it. These are direct quotes from the article I was responding to.

[relaxing]

It does not say “the basis.” It is concerning you don’t understand the discrepancy there.

You are welcome to your opinion about what is key, but reading comprehension does not seem to be your strong suit.

[Nevermark]

> "Uncovering the Molecular Basis [...]"

> "the [...] Basis"

The adjective molecular doesn't narrow "the basis" down much, for a condition which could safely be assumed to be molecular.