Cost-effective ways exist to improve your indoor air quality that will reduce your COVID and flu risk, lower your cancer and lung disease risk, and eliminate headaches and sleepiness caused by poor ve...

Mocking the Masked

The COVID-19 pandemic has precipitated a surge in neurocognitive dysfunction, with long-term implications for global health systems and socioeconomic stability. Despite growing clinical recognition of post-COVID cognitive deficits (“brain fog”), the molecular mechanisms driving these impairments remain poorly understood. Our study addresses this critical gap by identifying SARS-CoV-2 nucleocapsid protein (SARS-CoV-2 N protein), a core structural component of the virus, as a novel etiological factor in senescence-mediated cognitive decline. We observed that SARS-CoV-2 N protein caused microglial senescence both in vivo and in vitro. Mechanistically, SARS-CoV-2 N protein-induced metabolic shifting toward glycolysis initiated a cascade of microglial senescence, which propagated cognitive impairment. We found that glycolysis inhibition reduced SARS-CoV-2 N protein-triggered microglial senescence and attenuated cognitive impairment in mice. Disrupted mitochondrial dynamics impaired oxidative phosphorylation capacity, forcing glycolytic reprogramming that ultimately triggered cellular senescence activation. We found that the SARS-CoV-2 N protein promoted excessive mitochondrial dysfunction in microglia, resulting in mitochondrial fragmentation. Inhibition of mitochondrial fission effectively rescued SARS-CoV-2 N protein-induced microglial senescence. In conclusion, our study suggests that the SARS-CoV-2 N protein induces senescence-mediated cognitive impairment by promoting glycolysis in microglia. Therapeutic targeting of glycolysis in SARS-CoV-2 N protein-triggered microglial senescence could be beneficial for treating or preventing cognitive impairment.

Investigative journalist and pediatrician Eli Cahan joined me to discuss the magnitude of the long Covid crisis in the youth population of the United States, addressed in his October Rolling Stone pie...

A Harvard study found that the children of women who contracted COVID-19 while pregnant may be at an increased risk for autism and other diagnoses, raising new concerns about the CDC’s decision to sto...

Protesters, reporters, and clergy allege DHS federal agents under Operation Midway Blitz are violating their 1st Amendment rights.

Purpose Lingering inflammation after COVID-19 has been proposed as a contributor to long-term cardiovascular risk, yet the link between pulmonary and vascular inflammation remains insufficiently defin...

Flu season is here. These are the best disposable face coverings we’ve tested—and where you can find them.