What ‘Mini Brains’ Are Teaching About Covid-19
They provide a new way to study the virus that causes the disease
Miniature lab-grown brains in a dish are revealing insights about Covid-19. As Emily Mullin reports in OneZero, these “mini brains,” also known as organoids, are small structures made from stem cells that emit electrical activity as a real brain would. Researchers are using these structures to better understand the virus that causes Covid-19. So far, they are reporting that the virus appears to have the potential to infect human brain cells. Mullin writes:
The findings shed light on why Covid-19 seems to attack the brain in some people. In the Journal of the American Medical Association on April 10, Chinese researchers reported that about 36% of 214 Covid-19 patients at a Wuhan hospital had neurological symptoms in addition to respiratory ones. And a study published July 8 in the journal Brain found that neurological complications of Covid-19 can include delirium, brain inflammation, stroke, and nerve damage.
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