Evidence map›Paper›PMID 42431745›Full record

ArticleEBioMedicine2026

Loss of vesicular monoamine transporter 2 in striatum of long COVID and relationship to neuropsychiatric symptoms.

Yuhan Karida Liu, Devina Persaud, Erica L Vieira, Joeffre Braga, Pablo Rusjan, Laura Miler, Jennifer S Rabin, Tina McCluskey, Isabelle Boileau, Thomas Chao and 11 more

Erratum issuedAbstract read
PubMed Full text at PMC Publisher
In one paragraph

Article in EBioMedicine, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. An erratum has been issued. Cited by 1 paper.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
1citing papers in PubMed
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

1 citing paper in PubMed.

  1. Article
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

21 authors.

Yuhan Karida LiuBrain Health Imaging Centre, Campbell Family Mental Health Research Institute, The Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, Toronto, Ontario, Canada; Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology, University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada.
Devina PersaudBrain Health Imaging Centre, Campbell Family Mental Health Research Institute, The Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
Erica L VieiraBrain Health Imaging Centre, Campbell Family Mental Health Research Institute, The Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
Joeffre BragaBrain Health Imaging Centre, Campbell Family Mental Health Research Institute, The Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
Pablo RusjanDepartment of Psychiatry, McGill University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada.
Laura MilerBrain Health Imaging Centre, Campbell Family Mental Health Research Institute, The Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
Jennifer S RabinBrain Health Imaging Centre, Campbell Family Mental Health Research Institute, The Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, Toronto, Ontario, Canada; Harquail Centre for Neuromodulation, Hurvitz Brain Sciences Program, Sunnybrook Research Institute, Toronto, Ontario, Canada; Division of Neurology, Department of Medicine, Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre, University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada; Rehabilitation Sciences Institute, University of Toronto, Canada.
Tina McCluskeyBrain Health Imaging Centre, Campbell Family Mental Health Research Institute, The Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
Isabelle BoileauBrain Health Imaging Centre, Campbell Family Mental Health Research Institute, The Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, Toronto, Ontario, Canada; Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology, University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada; Department of Psychiatry, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
Thomas ChaoForward Thinking Psychological Services, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.
Michael BagbyDepartment of Psychiatry, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
Lucas NarcisoBrain Health Imaging Centre, Campbell Family Mental Health Research Institute, The Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, Toronto, Ontario, Canada; Department of Psychiatry, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
Lauren Rose GrayBrain Health Imaging Centre, Campbell Family Mental Health Research Institute, The Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, Toronto, Ontario, Canada; Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology, University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada.
Neil VasdevBrain Health Imaging Centre, Campbell Family Mental Health Research Institute, The Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
Kimberly DesmondBrain Health Imaging Centre, Campbell Family Mental Health Research Institute, The Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, Toronto, Ontario, Canada; Department of Psychiatry, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
Stefan KloiberBrain Health Imaging Centre, Campbell Family Mental Health Research Institute, The Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, Toronto, Ontario, Canada; Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology, University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada; Department of Psychiatry, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
Jerry WarshBrain Health Imaging Centre, Campbell Family Mental Health Research Institute, The Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
Muhammad Ishrat HusainBrain Health Imaging Centre, Campbell Family Mental Health Research Institute, The Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, Toronto, Ontario, Canada; Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology, University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada; Department of Psychiatry, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada; Krembil Brain Institute, University Health Network, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
Kelly SmartBrain Health Imaging Centre, Campbell Family Mental Health Research Institute, The Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, Toronto, Ontario, Canada; Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.
Wei WangBrain Health Imaging Centre, Campbell Family Mental Health Research Institute, The Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, Toronto, Ontario, Canada; Department of Psychological Clinical Science, University of Toronto Scarborough, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
Jeffrey H MeyerBrain Health Imaging Centre, Campbell Family Mental Health Research Institute, The Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, Toronto, Ontario, Canada; Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology, University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada; Department of Psychiatry, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Electronic address: jeffrey.meyer@utoronto.ca.

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

backgroundDopaminergic neurons are vulnerable to injury from gliosis and have high density of ACE2 receptors, but the integrity of dopaminergic neurons has not been investigated in long COVID. This study examined whether vesicular monoamine transporter 2 (VMAT2) binding, index of dopamine-releasing neuron density, is reduced in the striatum in long COVID and associated with neuropsychiatric symptoms.

methodsThis case-control study (Aug 2022-Apr 2025, Toronto, Canada) included 24 adults with long COVID and 24 age-matched healthy controls, and the healthy control sample was extended to 43 for exploratory analyses. Primary outcome was comparison of (+)[

findings(+)[

interpretationFindings of reduced VMAT2 binding may reflect reduced dopaminergic terminal integrity in long COVID. Loss of dopamine nerve terminals may be contributing to symptom correlates of apathy, motor slowing and memory decline suggesting improved function of dopaminergic synapses as a new therapeutic direction to treat long COVID.

fundingCanadian Institutes of Health Research (191851).

Indexed as

Corpus StriatumCOVID-19Vesicular Monoamine Transport ProteinsAdultAgedCase-Control StudiesDopaminergic ImagingFemaleHumansMaleMiddle AgedPositron-Emission TomographyPost-Acute COVID-19 SyndromeSARS-CoV-2SLC18A2 protein, humanVesicular Monoamine Transport ProteinsCOVID-19DopamineLong COVIDPositron emission tomographySARS-CoV-2Vesicular monoamine transporter 2

Identifiers

PMID42431745
PMCPMC13476897

What OpenQuestion holds

Textmetadata
Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

None linked

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.