Covid infection may contribute to heart damage in the severely ill, according to new study
04.02.2022 - 01:53
/ dailyrecord.co.uk
Covid-19 may contribute to heart damage apparent in severely-ill sufferers, according to new research.
The study - carried out by the University of Bristol - found that the disease could transform human heart vascular cells into inflammatory cells even if the virus has not actually infected them.
Published in Clinical Science, the research indicated that a new treatment could be used to help alleviate cardiovascular complications as a result of Covid.
The treatment would involve blocking antibodies, reports Wales Online.
The team at the University’s Bristol Heart Institute Institute have investigated how SARS-CoV-2 interacts with human heart cells where myocardial damage was present in patients.
Previously, the link between heart issues and coronavirus was somewhat unclear as scientists were unable to determine whether damage was caused by the virus or a defence response in the body.
This response, also known as ‘the cytokine storm’, comes from our immune cells, whereby cytotoxic cells attack and kill the infected cells by releasing proteins, called cytokines. The team investigated whether heart cells contributed to producing excess cytokines.
A research team led by Professor Paolo Madeddu exposed human heart pericytes, which are cells that wrap small blood vessels in the heart, to the Alpha and Delta variants of Covid, along with the original Wuhan virus.
To their surprise, they found the heart pericytes were not infected.
In a second test-tube experiment the researchers challenged the cardiac pericytes with the spike protein alone, without the virus.
The spike protein made pericytes unable to interact with their companion endothelial cells and induced them to secrete inflammatory cytokines, suggesting the spike protein is