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The coronavirus attacks and destroys the heart – scientists had such suspicions in the fall. However, it was not known exactly what caused heart failure, arrhythmia, and other heart disease in patients after COVID-19. Until now. The study, just published in the leading cardiology journal, Journal of the American College of Cardiology, explained how the SARS-CoV-2 virus damages the heart muscle. As it turned out?
- COVID-19 mainly affects the lungs, and it also affects other organs, including the heart. Scientists, however, did not know how the coronavirus attacks and destroys this organ
- Researchers have found that SARS-CoV-2 can penetrate and replicate in cardiomyocytes (cells in the heart muscle). Even when inflammation did not develop, the death of these cells was still observed
- Scientists: Even young people who have had very mild symptoms may later develop heart problems that reduce their exercise capacity
- More current information can be found on the Onet homepage.
COVID-19 affects not only the lungs but also the heart. First suspicions
It has been known for months that although COVID-19 mainly affects the lungs, it actually affects the brain, kidneys and the immune system. In the fall of last year, there was information that coronavirus infection can also damage the heart. Doctors noted that people who were severely infected with COVID-19 often showed symptoms of heart failure. Moreover, it has been increasingly suggested that even a mild course of SARS-CoV-2 infection, also in young and healthy patients, may be responsible for subsequent complications.
The patient was a 42-year-old man who had the typical symptoms of COVID-19 in April, including loss of smell and mild breathlessness, and a month later became severely ill with myocarditis. The man spent over two weeks in the intensive care unit.
- More on this in the article: SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus infection can damage the heart even in people with poor COVID-19 symptoms
There was also information that patients who had no heart problems developed arrhythmias after severe SARS-CoV-2 infection.
The cause of heart complications after COVID-19, however, still eluded scientists. It was suspected that, since SARS-CoV-2 elicits an intense immune response throughout the body, survivors of the infection may therefore be at increased risk of myocarditis. Another theory was that the pathogen itself attacks the cells of the heart. However, there was no certainty. Until now.
A study recently published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology (a leading international cardiology journal) finally revealed the elusive mechanism behind COVID-19 damage to the heart.
Analyzes began with an autopsy of COVID-19 patients who had severe myocarditis (inflammation of the heart tissue). Samples were taken from four patients. In the beginning, scientists wanted to determine if the virus had entered the heart muscle cells, in other words, if SARS-CoV-2 was present in the hearts of the deceased. It turned out that it was – cells found, among others, the coronavirus spike protein and its genome envelope.
The next step in the research was to grow human heart tissue using stem cells. It was used to model infection. Experiments have shown that the coronavirus can penetrate and replicate in cardiomyocytes (heart muscle cells), but it does not infect e.g. endothelial cells.
- Structure of the heart – what should you know about it?
The researchers observed that even when there was no inflammation, cell death still occurred.
— Our study is unique because it definitely shows that in COVID-19 patients who develop heart failure, the virus infects heart muscle cells – explained one of the authors of the study, prof. Kory Lavine. Inflammation can be a second blow to the damage caused by the pathogen, but inflammation itself is not the primary cause of heart injury, she emphasizes.
Scientists: We want everyone to take SARS-CoV-2 seriously
The discovery made it possible to understand how COVID-19 damages the heart. However, it can also have other uses. In particular, lab-grown and modified heart muscle cells could be useful in future COVID-19 research and in developing an effective therapy against the disease. For now, unfortunately, the only drugs used in the case of coronavirus infection reduce the symptoms or partially shorten the duration of the disease.
Scientists emphasize that the long-term cardiological effects of a coronavirus infection may also affect young people. Even young people who have very mild symptoms may later develop heart problems that reduce their exercise capacity. We want to understand what is happening so that we can prevent or treat it – emphasizes prof. Lavine.
And he adds, “We want everyone to take this virus seriously and make every effort to take precautionary measures and contain it from spreading. All this to prevent an even greater epidemic of heart disease in the future.
You may be interested in:
- Diseases that may make COVID-19 infection more severe
- The four chronic diseases that are most dangerous in COVID-19
- The 10 most common diseases of the circulatory system
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