A study published in Nature Communications analyzing nearly 1,000 UK adults found that the COVID-19 pandemic accelerated brain aging by an average of 5.5 months. This effect was observed not only in individuals infected with SARS-CoV-2 but also in those who were never infected, suggesting that the broader health impacts of the pandemic, including stress, loneliness, and socio-demographic deprivation, contributed to accelerated brain aging. The phenomenon was particularly pronounced in older adults, men, and people from disadvantaged backgrounds. Additionally, individuals who contracted COVID-19 showed reduced cognitive performance associated with increased brain aging. Separate research involving hamsters with long COVID revealed distinct transcriptomic changes linked to neurodegenerative processes in the brainstem, with evidence of persistent viral RNA and replicative virus detected up to 80 days post-infection, highlighting the neuroinvasive nature of SARS-CoV-2.