March 2, 2021

COVID-19 can kill heart muscle cells, interfere with contraction

by Julia Evangelou Strait, Washington University School of Medicine

Other viral infections have long been associated with heart damage, but Lavine said SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, is unique in the effect it has on the heart, especially in the immune cells that respond to the infection. In COVID-19, immune cells called macrophages, monocytes and dendritic cells dominate the immune response. For most other viruses that affect the heart, the immune system's T cells and B cells are on the scene.

"COVID-19 is causing a different immune response in the heart compared with other viruses, and we don't know what that means yet," Lavine said. "In general, the immune cells seen responding to other viruses tend to be associated with a relatively short disease that resolves with supportive care. But the immune cells we see in COVID-19 heart patients tend to be associated with a chronic condition that can have long-term consequences. These are associations, so we will need more research to understand what is happening."

Part of the reason these questions of causation in heart damage have been hard to answer is the difficulty in studying heart tissue from COVID-19 patients. The researchers were able to validate their findings by studying tissue from four COVID-19 patients who had heart injury associated with the infection, but more research is needed.

https://medicalxpress.com/news/2021-03-covid-heart-muscle-cells.html

March 4, 2021

Identifying the cause and potential treatment for COVID-19-induced heart damage

by QIMR Berghofer Medical Research Institute

A growing body of research suggests up to two-thirds of patients who have recovered from severe COVID-19 experienced some heart inflammation. About a quarter of patients hospitalized with severe COVID-19 sustained some form of cardiovascular injury.

Professor Hudson's research findings have been published on the pre-print server, bioRxiv, at the request of the reviewing scientific journal.

https://medicalxpress.com/news/2021-03-potential-treatment-covid-induced-heart.html

And some more "competition":

https://medicalxpress.com/news/2021-01-potential-covid-drug-successful-lab.html