Olfactory and neuro-cognitive effects of Covid-19 in young adults (Phime cohort)

Coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19) has generated unprecedented global concerns and responses. Given the rapid spread that the disease has had throughout the world, the diversity of the symptoms and organs affected but also the psychosocial consequences that the pandemic has had, it is important to study its short and long-term effects even in apparently less vulnerable populations such as healthy young adults.The project stems from the need to study this particularly but usually understudied population, residing in Brescia, in Lombardy, one of the areas most affected by the first phase of the pandemic. We leverage pre- and post-infection measures of olfactory, cognitive, motor performance and MRI outcomes to evaluate the impact of the disease on Covid-19 in a sample of subjects already participating in a longitudinal study. The participants were part of the Public Health Impact of Metals Exposure (PHIME) study, an ongoing longitudinal cohort study of adolescents in the Brescia province of northern Italy. PHIME was designed to evaluate cognitive and behavioral function in adolescents and young adults with environmental exposure to neurotoxic metals. Participants in this study then completed a neuropsychological and behavioral assessment and a baseline assessment of olfactory and motor performance complementary to that performed in the previous PHIME study. Additionally, participants completed a multimodal MRI scan including high-resolution olfactory metrics and functional olfactory stimulation. All participants in this PHIME-COVID study were asked to donate a blood sample for SARS-CoV-2 antibody testing.

La pandemia di Covid-19 ha suscitato preoccupazioni e risposte globali a causa della sua rapida diffusione, dei diversi sintomi e delle conseguenze psicosociali. Questo studio si concentra sull’impatto del virus su popolazioni apparentemente meno vulnerabili, in particolare giovani adulti sani a Brescia, in Lombardia, una delle aree più colpite. Sfruttando le misure pre e post-infezione, compresi i risultati olfattivi, cognitivi, delle prestazioni motorie e della risonanza magnetica, la ricerca esamina effetti a breve e lungo termine. I partecipanti, originariamente parte dello studio PHIME sull'esposizione ai metalli neurotossici negli adolescenti, vengono sottoposti a valutazioni neuropsicologiche, valutazioni delle prestazioni olfattive e motorie e scansioni MRI multimodali. I campioni di sangue vengono raccolti per il test degli anticorpi SARS-CoV-2