Severe COVID-19 is associated with molecular signatures of aging in the human brain

Maria Mavrikaki; Jonathan D Lee; Isaac H Solomon; Frank J Slack

doi:10.1038/s43587-022-00321-w

Severe COVID-19 is associated with molecular signatures of aging in the human brain

Nat Aging. 2022 Dec;2(12):1130-1137. doi: 10.1038/s43587-022-00321-w. Epub 2022 Dec 5.

Authors

Maria Mavrikaki^#¹, Jonathan D Lee^#², Isaac H Solomon³, Frank J Slack^{4

5}

Affiliations

¹ Department of Pathology, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA. mmavrika@bidmc.harvard.edu.
² Department of Pathology, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA.
³ Department of Pathology, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA.
⁴ Department of Pathology, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA. fslack@bidmc.harvard.edu.
⁵ Harvard Medical School Initiative for RNA Medicine, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA. fslack@bidmc.harvard.edu.

^# Contributed equally.

PMID: 37118539
DOI: 10.1038/s43587-022-00321-w

Abstract

As coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) and aging are both accompanied by cognitive decline, we hypothesized that COVID-19 might lead to molecular signatures similar to aging. We performed whole-transcriptome analysis of the frontal cortex, a critical area for cognitive function, in individuals with COVID-19, age-matched and sex-matched uninfected controls, and uninfected individuals with intensive care unit/ventilator treatment. Our findings indicate that COVID-19 is associated with molecular signatures of brain aging and emphasize the value of neurological follow-up in recovered individuals.

Publication types

Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural

MeSH terms

Aging / genetics
Brain
COVID-19*
Frontal Lobe
Gene Expression Profiling
Humans

Grants and funding

R01 AG058816/AG/NIA NIH HHS/United States