Experts have long been saying that COVID-19 can be dangerous for the brain. Recent experiments with monkeys have shown that sometimes the virus provokes brain inflammation and the formation of protein deposits associated with dementia and parkinsonism, scientists from the Biomedical Primate Research Centre in Rijswijk noted.

According to TASS, scientists tried to understand whether the virus is capable of getting directly into brain cells and causing disruptions in their work. For two weeks, specialists monitored the course of the infection and the changes in the brain of monkeys infected with SARS-CoV-2.

It turned out that the virus actually entered the cells of various regions of the brain: traces of the virus could be found in the cerebellum, motor cortex, and hippocampus.

Moreover, the virus has always provoked inflammation of the brain tissue and the formation of Lewy bodies (protein accumulations characteristic of parkinsonism and senile dementia). Lewy bodies were fixed even when there were no external manifestations of neurodegenerative changes.