Covid damages the heart and an American study explains how. Oxidative stress, inflammation, heartbeat alteration, impaired blood and oxygen pump function to other tissues are some of the effects that Sars-CoV-2 infection produces on the ‘motor organ’ of the human machine. They are described by Andrew Marks, cardiologist and professor of biophysics at Columbia University, and Steven Reiken, researcher in Marks’ laboratory, authors together with other colleagues of a study that will be presented in San Diego, California, at the 67th annual meeting of the Biophysical Society .
Covid-19 disease can cause life-threatening heart problems, researchers explain. Studies suggest that people with Covid, compared to uninfected people, are at a 55% greater risk of suffering a serious cardiovascular event such as heart attack, stroke or death. They are also more likely to have other heart problems such as arrhythmias or myocarditis, which is inflammation of the heart muscle. Marks’ team therefore sought to understand the mechanisms at the origin of these disturbances.
In heart tissue from Covid patients, the team observed increases in oxidative stress and inflammation signals. The researchers also found changes in a protein called RyR2, which is responsible for regulating calcium ion levels in the heart. An element, calcium, which the heart – like all other muscles – needs to contract. In particular, the ‘calcium pathways’ are essential to the heart for the coordinated contraction of the atria and ventricles. When the calcium balance is thrown off, arrhythmias or heart failure can occur.
To better understand the nature of the ‘blows’ that Covid inflicts on the heart, Marks and colleagues used a mouse model infected with Sars-CoV-2. They saw changes in the heart tissue of the COVID-19 sick rodent, including infiltration of immune cells, accumulation of collagen indicative of injury, heart cell death and blood clot formation. The researchers also measured how the cardiac proteome, the set of proteins expressed by heart cells, changed, highlighting alterations consistent with those observed in human Covid patients, as well as markers of cardiomyopathy that can make it more difficult for the heart to pump blood to the rest of the body. body and can therefore cause heart failure.
“The more awareness you gain around the specific mechanisms of a disease, the more likely you are to improve patient care,” says Marks, noting that “clinicians should be aware of cardiac changes linked to COVID-19 infections and should look for them”. With ongoing research, “we really want to understand what causes heart disease” associated with Sars-CoV-2 “and how to fix it.”
Understanding the changes that COVID-19 causes at a molecular level within the heart may point to drug targets to help alleviate infection-related heart symptoms, as well as help healthcare professionals diagnose and treat these problems more effectively. In addition, gaining insight into the heart complications of Covid-19 can help public health officials make more informed decisions about how to respond to the pandemic, targeting the highest-risk groups.