Alzheimer’s + Long Covid & ME/CFS “Brain Fog”: What Do They Have in Common?
The diagnostic protein “blobs” of Alzheimer’s disease may not be its cause after all—and some sleuthing suggests it may all be fraud
Perhaps no diagnosis creates so much dread as Alzheimer’s disease. While every case presents and progresses differently, the ultimate fate of the patient is a profound loss of self. With that comes not only loss of memory but also of all relationships and the ability to navigate life, from the smallest moments to the greatest.
The failure of drugs created to stop the progression of Alzheimer’s disease (AD) has raised doubt about the disease’s cause—and some of that doubt may be bolstered by questionable, if not fraudulent, research.
An unexpected silver lining of these failures may lead to the discovery of the true cause of AD—as well as the cause of “brain fog” in Long Covid and ME/CFS, “chemo brain,” plus the cognitive impairment seen in AIDS—and result in effective treatments for them all.
In August 2022, the Washington Post published an article describing changes in brain cells called microglia that appear in Long Covid, AD, and cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy. Avindra Nath, the intramural clinical director of the neurological disorders and stroke unit of the National Institutes of Health, told the Post that there is “humongous overlap” between the inflammatory brain damage seen in Long Covid and inflammation seen after infections with influenza viruses, Epstein-Barr virus, Ebola virus and HIV. (1)
Researchers from Harvard and Johns Hopkins found that, in both ME/CFS and Covid-19, “too many oxygen molecules pile up in a cell—possibly resulting in inflammation that leads to cognitive issues.” (1)
And a Columbia University researcher, studying brains from 10 patients who’d died from Covid-19, “turned up a molecular change bearing the distinct signature of Alzheimer’s.” These changes were found in the parts of the grey matter that govern smell, which could help explain why Covid-19 patients often lose their sense of smell. Even people who had mild Covid cases showed shrunken grey matter in that area and a “higher than expected number of abnormalities” in their brains. (1)
The similarities of the brain abnormalities found in victims of these conditions that were previously considered completely different—Covid-19, ME/CFS, post-chemotherapy patients, AIDS, even Ebola—are mounting rapidly. A Columbia University professor found a typical AD protein, “phosphorylated tau,” in the brains of Covid-19 patients. At NIH, a researcher has found similar brain injuries in people with HIV, ME/CFS and Ebola virus. And NIH researchers also found too much oxygen in the brain cells of both ME/CFS and Long Covid patients. (1,2)
Cognitive impairment in AIDS has proved refractory to all treatment. Thought to be caused by HIV-infected microglial cells—the brain cells that malfunction in Covid-19, ME/CFS, and post-chemotherapy patients—but treatment with HIV-targeted retroviral therapies does not stop the cognitive decline. (2)
Meanwhile, the field of AD research has been undergoing upheaval. A whistleblower—a neuroscientist at Vanderbilt University—has alleged that photographs of Western blots in a 2006 Nature paper have been manipulated, which leads to questions about possible fabrication. (1)
This influential 2006 Nature paper been cited almost 2300 times; it also propelled the two lead researchers, Sylvaine Lesné and Karen H. Ashe, into the forefront of AD research. (3)
Lesné and Ashe’s team’s paper asserted that they’d discovered a new variant of the protein thought to be involved in AD memory loss, named “amyloid-β” [amyloid-beta]. Lesné and Ashe removed the new variant of amyloid-β from old mice with memory problems and injected it into young rats, which then also developed memory problems. Therefore, they asserted, the new protein alone “impairs memory independently of plaques or neuronal loss.” They named the new protein Aβ*56, pronounced “amyloid-beta star 56." (3)
The Vanderbilt whistleblower, neuroscientist and AD physician Mathew Schrag, became involved in examining the 2006 Lesné paper following a lawsuit questioning data submitted to the Food and Drug Administration as proof that an experimental AD drug, Simufilam, destroyed plaques in the brains of AD patients and thereby stopped cognitive decline. (4)
“A 6-month investigation by Science provided strong support for Schrag’s suspicions and raised questions about Lesné’s research,” Charles Piller reported in Science. (4)
While finding manipulated images in the Simulfilam literature, “... Schrag’s sleuthing drew him into a different episode of possible misconduct, leading to findings that threaten one of the most cited Alzheimer’s studies of this century and numerous related experiments,” Piller reported. (4)
The majority of AD drug research has concentrated on stopping the formation of AD’s signature plaques in the brain. These plaques are produced by the buildup of the precursor to the Aβ protein and are thought to disrupt cognitive function.
“Hundreds of clinical trials of amyloid-targeted therapies have yielded few glimmers of promise, however; only the underwhelming Aduhelm has gained FDA approval,” according to Science. “Yet Aβ still dominates research and drug development. NIH spent about $1.6 billion on projects that mention amyloids in this fiscal year, about half its overall Alzheimer’s funding.” (4)
No other avenues of AD research are being investigated and researchers who stray from the Aβ hypothesis of AD can’t obtain funding. “Scientists who advance other potential Alzheimer’s causes, such as immune dysfunction or inflammation, complain they have been sidelined by the ‘amyloid mafia,’ ” John Forsayeth of UCSF told Piller, adding that “the amyloid hypothesis became ‘the scientific equivalent of the Ptolemaic model of the Solar System,’ in which the Sun and planets rotate around Earth.” (4)
Schrag examined the Western blots purporting to measure the amounts of Aβ proteins in the Lesné et al. 2006 paper. He found that a number of blots had been manipulated: by cutting-and-pasting from another Western blot, for example, plus others that had been improperly duplicated, in whole or in part.
“Such manipulations can falsely suggest a protein is present—or alter the levels at which a detected protein is apparently found,” Science points out.
Piller interviewed Stanford University neuroscientist Thomas Südhof, a Nobel laureate and expert on AD and related conditions. “The immediate, obvious damage is wasted NIH funding and wasted thinking in the field because people are using these results as a starting point for their own experiments,” Südhof said of Lesné et al.’s manipulated data. (4)
Schrag has submitted evidence of tampered-with Western blots in Lesné et al.’s 2006 Nature paper to the National Institutes of Health, which funded much of the Aβ*56 research. According to Science, NIH will refer those findings of manipulated images to the Office of Research Integrity if NIH concludes they have merit.
Meanwhile, Nature has appended an Editor’s Note to the Lesné et al.’s 2006 paper:
“14 July 2022 Editor’s Note: The editors of Nature have been alerted to concerns regarding some of the figures in this paper. Nature is investigating these concerns, and a further editorial response will follow as soon as possible. In the meantime, readers are advised to use caution when using results reported therein.” (4)
The British newspaper The Guardian picked up the story a couple of days after the Science report, and the magazine Mother Jones interviewed Science’s reporter, Charles Piller, in August 2022. (5,6)
Piller was asked why, in his opinion, people would alter or falsify research, since it couldn’t help attain the desired result: a drug that will help AD and other patients. Piller responded that he’d given this a lot of thought, adding, “But I can imagine a circumstance in which a person is convinced of the truthfulness of their work, they’re convinced that this is something that really is important. And it means something. But they can’t quite get the experiment to work. So they say, ‘Well, I know this is right, I’m just going to change one little thing here.’ And lo and behold, nobody notices. ... In my experience, people who are engaging in conduct of this kind, there’s never a one-off. It’s always a series of things. And eventually, I hope, in most cases that it catches up with them because you’re absolutely right—if their findings are based on false information, it’s not going to result in a cure, or in any kind of effective work downstream.” (6)
The ineffectual search for an effective AD drug mirrors, in many ways, the search for an AIDS vaccine or a truly effective antiviral drug that doesn’t have to be taken for life. Are both of these endeavors targeting the wrong purported cause of the illness?
As for ME/CFS and Long Covid: Since almost no research is being done to find a medication that will help these patients—since there’s also almost no research trying to find the cause of the “brain fog,” among other symptoms of these two diseases—we can only hope that future research will attempt to avoid the pitfalls that went before.
Scientific rebels usually suffer damage to their reputations and funding, and AD research is no different. Nevertheless, while he has concerns about possible negative effects on his own career and future funding, Schrag “says he felt an urgent need to go public about work that might mislead the field and slow the race to save lives,” Science reported. “ ‘You can cheat to get a paper. You can cheat to get a degree. You can cheat to get a grant. You can’t cheat to cure a disease,’ he says. ‘Biology doesn’t care.’ ” (4)
BIBLIOGRAPHY
1. Ariana Eunjung Cha; “How Covid ‘Brain Fog’ May Overlap With ‘Chemo Brain’ and Alzheimer’s”; Washington Post, March 27, 2022. https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2022/03/27/covid-brain-fog-chemo-brain-alzheimers-disease/
2. Johannes C.M. Schlachetzki, Yi Zhou, Christopher K. Glass; “Human microglia phenotypes in the brain associated with HIV infection”; Current Opinion in Neurobiology, Volume 77, 2022, 102637. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0959438822001313
3. Lesné, S., Koh, M., Kotilinek, L. et al. “A Specific Amyloid-β Protein Assembly in the Brain Impairs Memory.” Nature 440, 352–357 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1038/nature04533Charles
4. Charles Piller; “Blots on a Field?” Science News, July 21, 2022. Also: Science, Vol 377, Issue 6604.
5. Jessica Glenza; “Critical Elements of Leading Alzheimer’s Study Possibly Fraudulent”; The Guardian, July 23, 2022.
6. Jackie Flynn Mogensen; “An Explosive New Report Could Upend More than a Decade of Alzheimer’s Research. How Did This Happen?” Mother Jones, August 17, 2022.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Neenyah Ostrom was the first reporter in the United States to report weekly for a decade on ME/CFS. Her reporting on the Chronic Fatigue Syndrome epidemic from 1988-1997 is getting increased attention thanks to Robert F. Kennedy Jr. He discusses her work extensively in his 2022 best seller, The Real Anthony Fauci.Ostrom’s groundbreaking reporting on Chronic Fatigue Syndrome and AIDS appeared in the New York Native from 1988 to 1997.
Ostrom is the author of four books about the Chronic Fatigue Syndrome epidemic: What Really Killed Gilda Radner? Frontline Reports On The Chronic Fatigue Syndrome Epidemic (1991; TNM Inc., New York, NY), 50 Things Everyone Should Know About The Chronic Fatigue Syndrome Epidemic And Its Link To AIDS(1992; TNM Inc. and St. Martin’s Press, New York, NY; published in Japanese by Shindan-to-Chiryo, 1993; and in French by Les Editions Logiques, 1994), and America’s Biggest Cover-Up: 50 More Things Everyone Should Know About The Chronic Fatigue Syndrome Epidemic And Its Link To AIDS (1993; TNM Inc., New York, NY); and America’s Biggest Cover-Up: 50 More Things Everyone Should Know About The Chronic Fatigue Syndrome Epidemic And Its Link To AIDS, Updated 2nd Edition (2022, available as a Kindle ebook and paperback on Amazon.com). Her most recent book, Ampligen: The Battle for a Promising ME/CFS Drug(2022) is available as a Kindle ebook and paperback on Amazon.com
In 1995, Ostrom and New York Native were recognized as having reported one of the top 25 most-censored stories in the U.S. press by 1995’s Censored: The News That Didn’t Make The News And Why (The 1995 Project Censored Yearbook by Sonoma State University Professor Carl Jensen, introduction by Michael Crichton; published by Four Walls Eight Windows, New York, NY, 1995).
Ostrom is ghostwriter/editor of seven popular science books. Additionally, she was an editor of Total Breast Health: The Power Food Solution For Health And Wellness by Robin Keuneke, which was chosen as a Publishers Weekly “Best Book of 1998” in the category of Breast Health (Kensington Publishing Corp., April 1998).