New study provides first evidence of dopamine system injury in the brain of long COVID patients
Peer-Reviewed Publication
Updates every hour. Last Updated: 20-Oct-2026 10:16 ET (20-Oct-2026 14:16 GMT/UTC)
A new brain imaging study led by researchers at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH), published in eBioMedicine, provides the strongest evidence to date that long COVID is associated with injury to dopamine-releasing neurons in the brain—a finding that may explain symptoms such as lack of motivation due to fatigue, slowed movement, and memory difficulties, and could open the door to new treatment strategies.
To prevent viruses from sickening or killing us — whether it’s an individual case of hepatitis B or a COVID pandemic — it’s crucial to understand how the proteins they make initiate changes in our bodies that allow them to flourish.
A new tool has just vastly broadened the scale at which researchers can study these proteins, promising to speed basic discoveries in virology, inform the development of new vaccines and treatments, and help humanity protect against emerging pathogens.
Air pollution from cruise ships could be damaging the health of people living in port cities by increasing inflammation and susceptibility to viruses such as the common cold and COVID-19.
In K-12 schools across the country, administrators are tasked with keeping everyone safe. New research shows they may be the most in need of protection.
In a study published this week in Psychology of Violence, researchers surveyed school personnel prior to the onset of COVID-19, during the height of COVID restrictions and after most restrictions had been lifted, and their findings surprised them: Administrators were more likely than teachers or school mental health professionals to experience verbal and threatening aggression from parents. After restrictions lifted, 77% of administrators reported such experiences, nearly 3.5 times the rate reported by teachers.
Over-the-counter antihistamines and a prescription anti-inflammatory drug both have a small benefit in reducing long Covid fatigue among people receiving care from specialist long Covid clinics, according to new findings from a large clinical trial led by UCL (University College London) and UCLH.
Mild COVID-19 can cause severe and long-lasting eye problems, according to a study from Linköping University, Sweden. The study also explains why it has been difficult for sufferers to get help: the abnormal eye behaviour cannot be detected by standard methods. The researchers have developed a diagnostic model to detect COVID-related eye problems.
Solving problems by harnessing the natural adaptive capacity of bacteria. This is the challenge taken up by a research team coordinated by INRAE and involving Grenoble Alpes University Hospital, Université Grenoble Alpes and the French Alternative Energies and Atomic Energy Commission (CEA). By tracking the growth curves of the bacterium Escherichia coli, the researchers were able to distinguish between mild and severe forms of COVID-19. These results, published in Cell Systems, pave the way for simple and low-cost diagnostic methods.
Years of progress in reducing benzodiazepine prescribing among older Americans stalled after the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a decade-long national study from Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health and Columbia University Irving Medical Center.
Genomic surveillance — the process of monitoring and sequencing pathogens — is one of the most important tools for detecting emerging viral threats. But global surveillance systems remain costly, unevenly distributed and often are too slow to identify dangerous variants before they spread internationally, amplifying future threats of disease outbreaks.
A recently published research paper in Nature Communications, co-authored by Dr. Patricia Ning, assistant statistics professor, and Jifan Li, a doctoral candidate in the Department of Statistics, along with collaborators from multiple international institutions, introduces a new framework to rectify these issues while using fewer resources, making genomic surveillance rapid and cost-effective in preparation for new strains of COVID-19.