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Final Program


Schedule at a Glance
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Program: Scientific Session
General Topic: Basic Science

Mechanisms of Brain Fog: Lifting the Veil on Neuroinflammation in Long COVID

Wednesday, October 29, 2025
10:00 AM - 11:00 AM Central Time
CE: 1

    Moderator(s)

  • Andrea Knight, MD, MSCE

    Hospital for Sick Children
    Toronto, Ontario, Canada

    Disclosure(s): Pfizer: Speaker/Honoraria (includes speakers bureau, symposia, and expert witness) (Terminated, May 27, 2023)

  • Carla Cuda, PhD

    Northwestern University
    Chicago, IL, United States

    Disclosure information not submitted.

    • Session Coordinator(s)

  • Teresa Tarrant, MD

    Duke University
    Durham, North Carolina, United States

    Disclosure(s): Amgen: Grant/Research Support (Ongoing); Chiesi: Consultant (Ongoing), Grant/Research Support (Ongoing); Department of Justice: Consultant (Ongoing); X4 Pharmaceuticals: Advisor or Review Panel Member (Ongoing), Consultant (Ongoing), Grant/Research Support (Ongoing)

Innate immune responses are essential for host defense from viral pathogenesis and cellular damage and must be tightly regulated to avoid excessive inflammation or autoimmunity. Recent scientific discovery has shown that fibrinogen deposits in the lungs and brains of patients with SARS-CoV-2 infection correlate with disease severity and predict long COVID cognitive deficits. Other mechanisms contributing and lending to therapeutic intervention include alterations in the microbiome. Given the complexity of overlapping mechanisms between antiviral immunity and autoimmunity, machine learning and modeling techniques may provide new insights for treatment and pathogenesis.

Learning Objectives:

  • State the mechanisms underlying neuropathology in long COVID
  • Categorize the role of thromboinflammation in neuropathology
  • Recognize how antiviral host defense mechanisms overlap with autoimmunity
  • Describe how neurotransmitters contribute to viral driven brain fog

Presentations:

  • 10:00 AM - 10:30 AM Central Time
    How Fibrin and Thromboinflammation Affect Neuropathology in Long COVID

    Speaker: Zhaoqi Yan, PhD – Gladstone Institute of Neurological Disease

  • 10:30 AM - 11:00 AM Central Time
    Viral and Immunologic Mechanisms Associated with Long-COVID Phenotypes

    Speaker: Linda Geng, MD, PhD – Stanford University