Turkish professor's research: Covid-19 lurks in the skull and stealthily infiltrates the brain.

Professor Dr. Ali Ertürk, Director of the Helmholtz Munich Institute of Smart Biotechnologies in Germany, has made another groundbreaking contribution to research that has garnered global attention. The research conducted by Prof. Dr. Ertürk and his team demonstrated for the first time that the spike protein used by the coronavirus to enter the human body accumulates in the 'hidden passages' of the skull and can settle on the brain's surface by using these passages to infiltrate the brain. Prof. Dr. Ertürk explained the details of their study, which yielded significant findings by examining brain tissues from more than 50 individuals who lost their lives to Covid-19 and brain fluids taken from dozens of long Covid-19 patients. Additionally, thanks to a special technique he developed, he was able to 'make transparent' the entire body of a laboratory mouse, a mammal, and digitally map it, visually revealing how far the virus has settled in the body.

IT ENTERED THE LITERATURE WITH THE CONCEPT OF DIGITAL BIOPSY

Prof. Dr. Ali Ertürk, who introduced the concept of 'digital biopsy' to the literature by successfully making the entire body of a laboratory mouse transparent along with some human organs and tissues such as the heart, eyes, and pancreas using a special technique called 'DISCO Transparency', has made another impactful contribution to research. As the Director of the Helmholtz Institute for Tissue Engineering and Regenerative Medicine at Ludwig Maximilian University in Munich, Germany, Prof. Dr. Ertürk and his team first showed that the skull is not just a hard helmet protecting the brain, but that the brain is a living part of it. Prof. Dr. Ertürk's research, which discovered that hundreds of thousands of defense cells located in the 'hidden passages' between the skull and the brain can suddenly enter the brain, was published last year in Cell, one of the world's most prestigious scientific journals. Based on the hypothesis that the coronavirus can infiltrate the brain using this mechanism, Prof. Dr. Ertürk initiated a new study, examining data from hundreds of patients. Samples of brain fluids taken from long Covid patients and those who did not experience long Covid were compared, and the cadavers of dozens of patients who died from Covid were digitized and examined using the DISCO Transparency method. The research published last week in Cell Host & Microbe revealed a frightening truth. The spike proteins used by the coronavirus to enter human cells accumulate in these hidden passages in the skull like 'garbage', and can even hide there for years before infiltrating the brain's surface.

HE TOOK A PICTURE OF THE VIRUS IN THE BODY

Opening the doors of his laboratories at the Helmholtz Institute to Demirören News Agency and sharing the details of the new research for the first time with DHA, Prof. Dr. Ertürk emphasized that the spike protein of the virus can remain in the protective layers of the brain and in the bone marrow of the skull for years, even after the disease has been overcome. Ertürk also succeeded in showing where the virus settled in the body in minute detail on mice using the DISCO Transparency technique. Thanks to three-dimensional mapping, it was visually demonstrated that the original virus that first emerged in Wuhan only settled in the lungs, while later variants could settle in almost every organ, from the stomach to the heart, from the lungs to the kidneys, and even to the testes and ovaries. Noting that the influenza virus only settles in the lungs, Prof. Dr. Ertürk stated that the coronavirus spreads throughout almost the entire body, emphasizing that Covid will lead to an increase in many diseases affecting not only brain and heart diseases but also other organs such as the kidneys and liver.

THE SECRET OF LONG COVID: PROTEINS ACCUMULATING LIKE GARBAGE

Prof. Dr. Ertürk stated: "Until now, the skull was always thought to be like a cap, serving only to protect the brain. In our first study on this subject, we showed that this is not the case, and that the skull is a living part of the brain. Because there are small doors in the skull. Doors that connect the cells in the skull to the brain. We demonstrated this through transparency and three-dimensional scans. This research was published in the Cell journal. After this study, we wanted to investigate whether these doors are also effective in other diseases. We were particularly curious about the coronavirus. We started to investigate the hypothesis of whether it can accumulate there and enter the brain. We worked with data from hundreds of patients. We examined the skulls of cadavers of more than 50 patients who died after Covid. We noticed that the levels of these types of proteins that cause inflammation and damage to neurons increased in nearly 60 long Covid patients who are still alive compared to those who did not experience long Covid. This study is really important because it was not known that the spike protein of the coronavirus could remain in the body for such a long time; we have definitively proven this. We showed that perhaps one hundred percent of the diseases that occur after corona, which we call long Covid, are caused by proteins that have increased and remained like garbage in the body."

'IT'S FRIGHTENING THAT IT DOESN'T DISAPPEAR FOR YEARS AND HIDES'

Prof. Dr. Ertürk said, "The frightening part is that the spike proteins in these areas do not disappear. They remain hidden in those regions of the skull for years and can transition to the brain. When they transition to the brain, they cause both inflammation and vascular disorders, leading to disruptions. What does this mean? It lowers the healthy state (immunity) of the brain. We observed that the outer part of the brain, the cortex, is more affected than the inner parts because this area is closer to the skull. The surface of the brain is a place where our thoughts, memories, character, and many other things are controlled. This effect can lead to the emergence of new neurological diseases or trigger existing predispositions.

He stated that "there may be an increase in neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's and Parkinson's, as well as neuropsychiatric disorders such as depression and schizophrenia."

'LONG COVID MAY HAVE A GREATER IMPACT THAN THE PANDEMIC'

Noting that they also studied where the virus spreads in the body using transparency in animal models, Ertürk provided the following information: "Here, we also saw that the influenza virus remains only in the lungs. Similarly, the first type of coronavirus, the Wuhan virus, also affects the lungs. However, variants after Delta and Omicron spread throughout the body. This presents a frightening picture when you look at this information. Because the virus has somehow created a target for both spreading more throughout the body and reaching the brain more with the variants. As variants diversify, the capacity to reach different tissues in the body also increases. Even young people can now catch certain diseases at a very early age due to the accumulation of these spike proteins in the body. The increase in heart diseases is likely due to the coronavirus spike proteins spreading in the body; we have clearly demonstrated this in our study. Currently, about 60% of the world has had Covid. This means more than 4 billion people. It is estimated that 10 to 15% of them have long Covid. In other words, 400 to 600 million people may have Long Covid. Unfortunately, the impact of Long Covid will increase. It may emerge as a problem even greater than Covid."