Zayeri, Zeinab Deris, Torabizadeh, Mehdi, Kargar, Masoud et al. · Behavioural brain research · 2024 · DOI
This study explains how COVID-19 can damage the brain and nervous system, causing inflammation and injury. The researchers found that about half of people recovering from COVID-19 develop ME/CFS symptoms, and brain scans show reduced activity in key areas that control memory, movement, and mood. The study focuses on the biological mechanisms—essentially how viruses trigger harmful immune responses in the brain that can lead to long-term neurological problems.
Understanding the neuroinflammatory mechanisms underlying post-COVID ME/CFS is critical because it provides biological validation for a condition often dismissed as psychosomatic. This work identifies specific molecular targets (microglia, cytokines, oxidative stress pathways) that could become therapeutic intervention points for ME/CFS patients who currently lack approved treatments.
This is a mechanistic review, not primary research, so it does not present new experimental data proving causation between specific viral mechanisms and ME/CFS. The study correlates brain abnormalities with ME/CFS symptoms but does not definitively establish which inflammatory pathways are sufficient or necessary to cause disease. It also cannot determine whether identified lesions and inflammation are reversible or permanent.
About the PEM badge: “PEM required” means post-exertional malaise was an explicit required diagnostic criterion for participant inclusion in this study — not that PEM was studied, observed, or discussed. Studies using criteria that do not require PEM (e.g. Fukuda, Oxford) are tagged “PEM not required”. How the atlas works →
The first block is for the primary paper and is the citation you should use in research work. The atlas-snapshot line only applies if you are specifically referring to this atlas’s reading of the paper on the date shown.
Primary citation
Zayeri, Zeinab Deris, Torabizadeh, Mehdi, Kargar, Masoud, & Kazemi, Hashem (2024). The molecular fingerprint of neuroinflammation in COVID-19: A comprehensive discussion on molecular mechanisms of neuroinflammation due to SARS-COV2 antigens.. Behavioural brain research. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bbr.2024.114868
BibTeX
@article{mecfsatlas-zayeri-2024-molecular-fingerprint,
author = {Zayeri, Zeinab Deris and Torabizadeh, Mehdi and Kargar, Masoud and Kazemi, Hashem},
title = {The molecular fingerprint of neuroinflammation in COVID-19: A comprehensive discussion on molecular mechanisms of neuroinflammation due to SARS-COV2 antigens.},
journal = {Behavioural brain research},
year = {2024},
doi = {10.1016/j.bbr.2024.114868},
note = {PubMed: 38246395},
url = {https://www.mecfsatlas.com/evidence/zayeri-2024-molecular-fingerprint},
}Atlas snapshot reference
ME/CFS Atlas. Generator v1 / Scanner v1.4 / policy v0.1. Accessed 2026-05-30. https://www.mecfsatlas.com/evidence/zayeri-2024-molecular-fingerprint
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