COVID-19-related cardiac complications from clinical evidences to basic mechanisms: opinion paper of the ESC Working Group on Cellular Biology of the Heart.
Cardiovasc Res
; 117(10): 2148-2160, 2021 08 29.
Article
in English
| MEDLINE | ID: covidwho-1266112
ABSTRACT
The pandemic of coronavirus disease (COVID)-19 is a global threat, causing high mortality, especially in the elderly. The main symptoms and the primary cause of death are related to interstitial pneumonia. Viral entry also into myocardial cells mainly via the angiotensin converting enzyme type 2 (ACE2) receptor and excessive production of pro-inflammatory cytokines, however, also make the heart susceptible to injury. In addition to the immediate damage caused by the acute inflammatory response, the heart may also suffer from long-term consequences of COVID-19, potentially causing a post-pandemic increase in cardiac complications. Although the main cause of cardiac damage in COVID-19 remains coagulopathy with micro- (and to a lesser extent macro-) vascular occlusion, open questions remain about other possible modalities of cardiac dysfunction, such as direct infection of myocardial cells, effects of cytokines storm, and mechanisms related to enhanced coagulopathy. In this opinion paper, we focus on these lesser appreciated possibilities and propose experimental approaches that could provide a more comprehensive understanding of the cellular and molecular bases of cardiac injury in COVID-19 patients. We first discuss approaches to characterize cardiac damage caused by possible direct viral infection of cardiac cells, followed by formulating hypotheses on how to reproduce and investigate the hyperinflammatory and pro-thrombotic conditions observed in the heart of COVID-19 patients using experimental in vitro systems. Finally, we elaborate on strategies to discover novel pathology biomarkers using omics platforms.
Keywords
Full text:
Available
Collection:
International databases
Database:
MEDLINE
Main subject:
Myocytes, Cardiac
/
SARS-CoV-2
/
COVID-19
/
Heart
/
Heart Diseases
Type of study:
Prognostic study
Topics:
Long Covid
Limits:
Animals
/
Humans
Language:
English
Journal:
Cardiovasc Res
Year:
2021
Document Type:
Article
Affiliation country:
Cvr
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