Unfortunately, her research will take time, and patients continue to suffer while scientists and physicians work to understand long COVID. “I think what we need to do most is listen carefully to our patients,” Dr. Brenner said. “Some of the more nuanced aspects of long COVID still have not gotten the attention or recognition they deserve. We need to bring a tremendous amount of humility to our practices and listen to what our patients are describing and experiencing. The relative inattention to otolaryngologic manifestations of long COVID can lead to missed opportunities to provide symptomatic relief, as in the case of patients whose perception of malaise or fatigue is amplified by vestibular impairment.”
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May 2023Jennifer Fink is a freelance medical writer based in Wisconsin.
An Olfactory Implant for Smell Loss?
Cochlear implants bypass damaged areas of the inner ear and deliver sound signals directly to the auditory nerve, allowing some individuals with severe hearing loss to perceive sound. Could a similar system be used to restore olfaction to individuals who have a lost or distorted sense of smell?
Dr. Holbrook thinks so. Each olfactory neuron has a receptor that has an affinity for a specific chemical. Because odors are complex, each odor stimulates a different collection of receptors. Olfactory sensory neurons expressing the same type of odorant receptor target specific glomeruli on the olfactory bulb, and research has confirmed that each glomerulus only contains one receptor type. Scientists working with mice have found that when the rodents are exposed to different odors, different glomeruli patterns are stimulated.
Theoretically, “if you could somehow figure out how to stimulate different patterns on the olfactory bulb, you may be able to bypass damaged nasal epithelium” to induce the perception of odors, Dr. Holbrook said. “You’d have an artificial stimulation but a real perception.”
Dr. Holbrook is currently working with Mark Richardson, MD, PhD, director of functional neurosurgery at Massachusetts General Hospital, to further explore the neuronal pathways of olfaction, and with James Schwob, MD, PhD, the George A. Bates Professor of Histology and professor of developmental, molecular, and chemical biology at Tufts University School of Medicine, on olfactory stem cell treatments for smell loss.