left: a healthy heart muscle with fibres that help the heart muscles contract. right: the virus that causes covid-19 slices these fibres into small pieces and impacting the heart cell’s ability to beat. (image: gladstone institute.)
gladstone institute
“the sarcomere disruptions we discovered would make it impossible for the heart muscle cells to beat properly,” said dr. bruce conklin, another senior investigator on the study.
researchers say that nuclear dna information was missing from many of the heart cells, which means the cells would not be able to perform any of its normal functions.
“it’s the cell equivalent of being brain dead,” says conklin. “we believe they are unique to sars-cov-2 and could explain the prolonged heart damage seen in many covid-19 patients.”
this adds to a body of research showing covid-19’s effect on the heart, even long after the virus is gone.
a study from germany published in july looked at
100 patients who recovered from covid-19
and found that 60 of them showed signs of ongoing heart inflammation, while 18 had other cardiac issues. one-third of participants had required hospital treatment, but none were classified as having serious covid-19 symptoms.
researchers said that unlike other organs in the body, the heart is not able to regenerate tissue. if someone became infected with covid-19, even if it a mild infection, it is possible they could develop heart disease years down the road.
“it will be important to identify a protective therapy, one that safeguards the heart from the damage we’re seeing in our models,” says mcdevitt. “even if you can’t prevent the virus from infecting cells, you could put a patient on a drug to prevent these negative consequences from occurring while the disease is present.”
dduong@postmedia.com
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