Dianosmia: after Covid, one in ten people cannot recover their sense of smell and taste: therapy arrives
Covid dianosmia: Covid-19 causes many patients to lose their sense of smell and taste. And one in ten still cannot smell or taste after recovery
Suffering from dianosmia (lack of sense of smell) and ageusia (lack of taste) can have a profound effect on the quality of life, but an innovative anti-neuroinflammation therapy, capable of acting on the control of alterations in the nervous system, promises to fully restore function in just a few months.
DIANOSMIA, THE STUDY
The first results emerge from a study conducted, with the enrolment of a hundred patients, by the team of Dr. Arianna Di Stadio, Research Coordinator in Otolaryngology and Professor of Neuroscience at the University of Perugia, which began in November 2020.
“The study starts from the hypothesis that the cause of the loss of the sense of smell involves the central nervous system. This hypothesis is confirmed by the results of the work itself and by other previous scientific studies, which go beyond the theory of peripheral obstruction,” explains Dr. Di Stadio.
The virus, therefore, causes an infection and inflammation of the encephalon which, by altering the signal transmission processes, produces total or partial repercussions on the sense of smell with the risk that, once the structure (the olfactory bulb) has atrophied, the anosmia becomes irrecoverable.
The brain repairs the damage autonomously within one to two years, but if this does not happen, it is important to intervene as soon as possible and undergo treatment to restore the ability to smell and taste within a few months of the disorder occurring.
The study is currently being conducted at the Fano hospital, but new centers in Italy are being enrolled (Rome and Cagliari) to increase the number of patients and offer a wider coverage of the country for the treatment of this problem.
Patients included so far have had anosmia for more than three months after the Covid swab was negative.
RESULTS OF THE DIANOSMIA STUDY
“Patients were divided into two groups, both of which underwent a Sniff-test to stimulate recovery of the sense of smell, but only one treated with the innovative anti-neuroinflammation therapy, which can act on the control of central nervous system alterations, through the reduction of neuroinflammation in favor of neuroprotection, through the reduction of localized oxidative stress, both of which are related to the onset of major central nervous system pathologies.
The new therapy molecule modulates the interaction between dysregulated non-neuronal cells, mast cells, microglia, and astrocytes, repairing neuronal damage.
The data show that patients treated with the supplement have recovered 100 percent more,” she says.
“The preliminary data already analyzed are promising,’ Arianna Di Stadio continues.
Patients with partial anosmia, taking the supplements to assist recovery of olfactory function, regained their sense of smell in 30 days, while patients with severe anosmia improved their olfactory ability in 30 days, requiring a 3-month treatment for full recovery of function.
At the same time, the data show that waiting for spontaneous recovery is counterproductive because the disorder progresses and worsens, until it becomes untreatable after two months of recovery from Covid, as chronicity leads to atrophy of the olfactory bulb’.
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