Post-acute COVID-19 cognitive impairment and decline uniquely associate with kynurenine pathway activation: a longitudinal observational study (7 June 2022)

Summary

Many people with Long Covid experience varying levels of long-term cognitive impairment, but the causes of this are not well understood. This preprint longitudinal observational study aimed to identify links between cognitive impairment and different biomarkers in people with Long Covid.

The authors reported the findings of 128 prospectively studied patients who had tested positive for Covid. They looked at:

• lung function, physical and mental health at two months post diagnosis.
• blood cytokines, neuro-biomarkers and kynurenine pathway (KP) metabolites at 2-, 4-, 8- and 12-months post diagnosis.

The study identified that KP metabolites were significantly associated with cognitive decline and could therefore offer a potential therapeutic target for treating cognitive impairment related to Long Covid.