University of Tennessee Health Science Center researchers receive grant to study long COVID

The University of Tennessee Health Science Center has received a $1.5 million grant from the National Institute of Mental Health to research the causes of neurological disorders in individuals suffering from long COVID. It is hoped that the research will lead to effective treatments for the disorders.

According to an article on the University of Tennessee Health Science Center’s website, the grant has been awarded to a team of researchers including Jianyang Du, PhD, an associate professor in the College of Medicine in the Department of Anatomy and Neurobiology, Colleen Jonsson, PhD, who serves as a professor in the Department of Microbiology as well as the Director of the UT Health Science Center Regional Biocontainment Laboratory, and Kun Li, PhD, an assistant professor at Cleveland Clinic’s Lerner Research Institute, who will serve as a consultant on the project.

The study will examine mice that have been injected with an infection similar to SARS-CoV-2 in order to look at the mice’s brain function in the two weeks post-infection. It is indicated by the presence of infection in the brain within just four days that the infection places a direct hindrance on the brain’s ability to function.

The overall goal of the project is to examine how the brain is affected by COVID, and how to best treat these symptoms in individuals who develop long COVID.

Dr. Du said, “I would like to express my gratitude to Dr. Qian Ge, my postdoctoral fellow, for her significant contributions to the grant application. Dr. Ge’s preliminary data not only supports the hypothesis but also provides a solid foundation for further exploration. We also extend our deepest gratitude to Dr. Long-Jun Wu, professor and founding director of the Center for Neuroimmunology and Glial Biology at the Institute of Molecular Medicine, University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston. Dr. Wu provided invaluable technical support for the grant application, and the progress of this work would not have been possible without his generous assistance.”

For more information about the University of Tennessee Health Science Center, visit the school’s website.