The work, which will be presented at the 67th annual meeting of the Biophysical Society, scheduled in San Diego, shows how the virus increases the risk of heart attack and potentially fatal attacks by 55%.
Il Covid-19 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 to describe them Andrew Markscardiologist and professor of biophysics at Columbia University, e Steven Reikenresearcher in Marks’ lab, co-authors and colleagues of a study to 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 RyR2responsible for regulating the 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 model of topo infected with Sars-CoV-2. They thus saw changes in the rodent heart tissue, including infiltration of immune cells, accumulation of collagen, indicative of injury, heart cell death, and blood clot formation. The scholars also measured how the cardiac proteomethe set of proteins expressed by heart cells, highlighting alterations consistent with those observed in human Covid patients, as well as markers of cardiomyopathy which can make it more difficult for the heart to pump blood to the rest of the 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, stressing that “clinicians should be aware of heart 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 causes at a molecular level inside the heart can indicate drug targets to be able to relieve infection-related heart symptoms, helping healthcare professionals diagnose and treat these problems more effectively. Also, seeing more clearly about the heart complications of Covid-19 can help public health officials take the lead more informed decisions about how to respond to the pandemictargeted at the highest risk groups.
Nurse Times editorial team
Stay up to date with Nurse Times, follow us on:
Telegram – https://t.me/NurseTimes_Channel
Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/nursetimes.it/
Facebook – NT
Twitter –
- How Covid can damage the heart: the study
- Atrial fibrillation or flutter, dronedarone reduces incidence of progression to permanent arrhythmia
- Lecce, theft against serious patients: heavy charges against an obs
- Reggio Calabria, nurse-patient hits doctor with a slap
- The colors of the tubes: blue, red, green, purple, pink, black, yellow, gray