The Association of Pre-existing Diagnoses of Alzheimer’s Disease and Parkinson’s Disease and Coronavirus Disease 2019 Infection, Severity and Mortality: Results From the Korean National Health Insurance Database

Investigating the Potential Shared Molecular Mechanisms between COVID-19 and Alzheimer's Disease via Transcriptomic Analysis

SARS-CoV-2 caused the COVID-19 pandemic. COVID-19 may elevate the risk of cognitive impairment and even cause dementia in infected individuals; it may accelerate cognitive decline in elderly patients with dementia, possibly in Alzheimer's disease (AD) patients. However, the mechanisms underlying the interplay between AD and COVID-19 are still unclear. To investigate the underlying mechanisms and associations between AD progression and SARS-CoV-2 infection, we conducted a series of bioinformatics research into SARS-CoV-2-infected cells, COVID-19 patients, AD patients, and SARS-CoV-2-infected AD patients. We identified the common differentially expressed genes (DEGs) in COVID-19 patients, AD patients, and SARS-CoV-2-infected cells, and these DEGs are enriched in certain pathways, such as immune responses and cytokine storms. We constructed the gene interaction network with the signaling transduction module in the center and identified IRF7, STAT1, STAT2, and OAS1 as the hub genes. We also checked the correlations between several key transcription factors and the SARS-CoV-2 and COVID-19 pathway-related genes. We observed that ACE2 expression is positively correlated with IRF7 expression in AD and coronavirus infections, and interestingly, IRF7 is significantly upregulated in response to different RNA virus infections. Further snRNA-seq analysis indicates that NRGN neurons or endothelial cells may be responsible for the increase in ACE2 and IRF7 expression after SARS-CoV-2 infection. The positive correlation between ACE2 and IRF7 expressions is confirmed in the hippocampal formation (HF) of SARS-CoV-2-infected AD patients. Our findings could contribute to the investigation of the molecular mechanisms underlying the interplay between AD and COVID-19 and to the development of effective therapeutic strategies for AD patients with COVID-19.

Mental health impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on patients with neurodegenerative diseases and perceived family caregiver burden in Lima, Peru

BACKGROUND

Neurodegenerative diseases lead to difficulties with functional activities. In Peru, most caregivers are family members. Little is known about the COVID-19 pandemic's effect on caregivers in Peru.

METHODS

This was a cross-sectional, prospective study of family caregivers of dependent patients with dementia or Parkinson's Disease in Lima, Peru. A caregiver burden and mental health questionnaire was administered to the caregiver.

RESULTS

We enrolled 48 caregivers (65% females, mean ± SD age 49.0 ± 12.3 years); 70% of patients had dementia. Nearly 40% of caregivers reported having full-time jobs, and 82% felt overwhelmed with almost 75% dedicating more time to caregiving during the pandemic. Caregivers perceived patients felt lonelier (52%), had an increase in hallucinations (50%), or forgetfulness (71%) compared to pre-pandemic.

CONCLUSIONS

Our study highlights that perceived caregiver burden and patient behavioral symptoms may have been exacerbated during the pandemic. In countries such as Peru, more caregiving resources and interventions are needed.

Nationwide health, socio-economic and genetic predictors of COVID-19 vaccination status in Finland

Understanding factors associated with COVID-19 vaccination can highlight issues in public health systems. Using machine learning, we considered the effects of 2,890 health, socio-economic and demographic factors in the entire Finnish population aged 30-80 and genome-wide information from 273,765 individuals. The strongest predictors of vaccination status were labour income and medication purchase history. Mental health conditions and having unvaccinated first-degree relatives were associated with reduced vaccination. A prediction model combining all predictors achieved good discrimination (area under the receiver operating characteristic curve, 0.801; 95% confidence interval, 0.799-0.803). The 1% of individuals with the highest predicted risk of not vaccinating had an observed vaccination rate of 18.8%, compared with 90.3% in the study population. We identified eight genetic loci associated with vaccination uptake and derived a polygenic score, which was a weak predictor in an independent subset. Our results suggest that individuals at higher risk of suffering the worst consequences of COVID-19 are also less likely to vaccinate.

Alzheimer's disease and COVID-19: Interactions, intrinsic linkages, and the role of immunoinflammatory responses in this process

Alzheimer's disease (AD) and COVID-19 share many common risk factors, such as advanced age, complications, APOE genotype, etc. Epidemiological studies have also confirmed the internal relationship between the two diseases. For example, studies have found that AD patients are more likely to suffer from COVID-19, and after infection with COVID-19, AD also has a much higher risk of death than other chronic diseases, and what's more interesting is that the risk of developing AD in the future is significantly higher after infection with COVID-19. Therefore, this review gives a detailed introduction to the internal relationship between Alzheimer's disease and COVID-19 from the perspectives of epidemiology, susceptibility and mortality. At the same time, we focused on the important role of inflammation and immune responses in promoting the onset and death of AD from COVID-19.

Risk Factors of Severe COVID-19: A Review of Host, Viral and Environmental Factors

The clinical course and outcome of COVID-19 are highly variable, ranging from asymptomatic infections to severe disease and death. Understanding the risk factors of severe COVID-19 is relevant both in the clinical setting and at the epidemiological level. Here, we provide an overview of host, viral and environmental factors that have been shown or (in some cases) hypothesized to be associated with severe clinical outcomes. The factors considered in detail include the age and frailty, genetic polymorphisms, biological sex (and pregnancy), co- and superinfections, non-communicable comorbidities, immunological history, microbiota, and lifestyle of the patient; viral genetic variation and infecting dose; socioeconomic factors; and air pollution. For each category, we compile (sometimes conflicting) evidence for the association of the factor with COVID-19 outcomes (including the strength of the effect) and outline possible action mechanisms. We also discuss the complex interactions between the various risk factors.

Risk of SARS-CoV-2 infection, hospitalization and death for COVID-19 in people with Parkinson's disease or parkinsonism over a 15-month period: a cohort study

BACKGROUND

The patterns of long term risk of SARS-CoV-2 infection, hospitalization for COVID-19 and related death are uncertain in people with Parkinson's disease (PD) or parkinsonism (PS). The aim of the study was to quantify these risks compared to a control population cohort, during the period March 2020-May 2021, in Bologna, northern Italy.

METHOD

ParkLink Bologna cohort (759 PD; 192 PS) and controls (9,226) anonymously matched (ratio 1:10) for sex, age, district, comorbidity were included. Data were analysed in the whole period and in the two different pandemic waves (March-May 2020 and October 2020-May 2021).

RESULTS

Adjusted hazard ratio of SARS-CoV-2 infection was 1.3 (95% CI 1.04-1.7) in PD and 1.9 (1.3-2.8) in PS compared to the controls. The trend was detected in both the pandemic waves. Adjusted hazard ratio of hospitalization for COVID-19 was 1.1 (95% CI 0.8-1.7) in PD and 1.8 (95% CI 0.97-3.1) in PS. A higher risk of hospital admission was detected in PS only in the first wave. The 30-day mortality risk after hospitalization was higher (p=0.048) in PS (58%) than in PD (19%) and controls (26%).

CONCLUSIONS

Compared with controls, after adjustment for key covariates, people with PD and PS showed a higher risk of SARS-CoV-2 infection throughout the first 15 months of the pandemic. COVID-19 hospitalization risk was increased only in people with PS and only during the first wave. This group of patients was burdened by a very high risk of death after infection and hospitalization.

Association between physical activity status and severity of COVID-19 in older adults

The risk factors specific to the elderly population for severe coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by the Omicron variant of concern (VOC) are not yet clear. We performed an exploratory analysis using logistic regression to identify risk factors for severe COVID-19 illness among 4,868 older adults with a positive severe acute respiratory coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) test result who were admitted to a healthcare facility between 1 January 2022 and 16 May 2022. We then conducted one-to-one propensity score (PS) matching for three factors - dementia, admission from a long-term care facility and poor physical activity status - and used Fisher's exact test to compare the proportion of severe COVID-19 cases in the matched data. We also estimated the average treatment effect on treated (ATT) in each PS matching analysis. Of the 4,868 cases analysed, 1,380 were severe. Logistic regression analysis showed that age, male sex, cardiovascular disease, cerebrovascular disease, chronic lung disease, renal failure and/or dialysis, physician-diagnosed obesity, admission from a long-term care facility and poor physical activity status were risk factors for severe disease. Vaccination and dementia were identified as factors associated with non-severe illness. The ATT for dementia, admission from a long-term care facility and poor physical activity status was -0.04 (95% confidence interval -0.07 to -0.01), 0.09 (0.06 to 0.12) and 0.17 (0.14 to 0.19), respectively. Our results suggest that poor physical activity status and living in a long-term care facility have a substantial association with the risk of severe COVID-19 caused by the Omicron VOC, while dementia may be associated with non-severe illness.