Novel Corona, Heart ‘Pacemaker’ Attacks Directly
Heart rate control ‘Sinus node’ cell infection → triggers iron-dependent planned death
Researchers at Cornell Medical University in the United States have published a paper in the Journal of the American Heart Association.
(Seoul = Yonhap News) Reporter Ki-cheon Han = When the novel coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) invades, infections mainly occur in the respiratory and cardiovascular systems.
Arrhythmia is one of the most common novel coronavirus infections in the cardiovascular system.
Arrhythmia usually refers to an irregular heartbeat, but it also includes a heartbeat that is too fast or too slow.
For no particular reason, a heart rate of ‘more than 100 beats per minute’ is considered tachycardia, and ‘less than 60 beats’ is considered bradycardia.
If arrhythmias are left unattended, various heart diseases such as heart attack can occur.
Scientists at Weill Cornell Medical School in the US have uncovered how the novel coronavirus causes arrhythmias.
The novel coronavirus has been shown to infect specialized ‘pacemaker cells’ of the heart, or pacemaker cells, and trigger ferroptosis.
Peroptosis refers to an iron (Fe)-dependent apoptosis mechanism.
The results of this study, led by Shuibing Chen, a professor of chemical biology at Cornell Medical University, were published as a paper in the American Heart Association journal Circulation Research on the 1st (local time).
Scientists from NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital, a non-profit academic medical center, and New York University Medical School also participated in the study.
Professor Chen, co-lead author of the paper, said, “We have confirmed that the novel coronavirus infects several types of cells, including myocardial cells, but these pacemaker cells are the only ones that have detected a peroptotic signal.”
‘Tachycardia’, a type of arrhythmia, is also commonly reported in patients with COVID-19. There have also been several research reports that arrhythmia is associated with worsening of the condition of COVID-19.
But how the virus causes arrhythmias is not well understood.
The research team selected a hamster as an experimental model.
It is said that using a hamster as a model, it is possible to clearly observe signs of infection similar to human COVID-19.
In this experiment, it was confirmed that the novel coronavirus infects ‘sinoatrial node’ cells through the nose.
The sinus node, also called ‘atrial sinus node’, is a unique tissue with a heart rate control function.
The novel coronavirus is believed to infect sinus nodes in humans as well.
Scientists have confirmed that sinus node cells differentiated into human embryonic stem cells contain ACE2 receptors, which are necessary for human infection of the novel coronavirus.
In addition, when this type of cell was infected with the new corona, the activity of the inflammatory immune gene increased significantly.
However, the most surprising finding was that sinus node cells showed clear signs of peroptosis when stressed by the novel coronavirus infection.
When peroptosis, which is related to the accumulation of iron in cells, progresses, free radicals that destroy cells are created explosively.
Scientists also confirmed that using a compound that binds to iron and inhibits peroptosis reverses the process of sinus node cell programmed death.
“This suggests, if not all, that the arrhythmias in COVID-19 patients originate from sinus node cell peroptosis,” said Robert Schwartz, an associate professor at Cornell Medical School, who co-lead author.
In fact, if you want to protect only the sinus node cells of Corona 19 patients, you can use the already available peroptosis inhibitors.
However, antiviral agents with a broad spectrum of efficacy, which block the effects of novel coronavirus infection in all cell types, are inevitably preferred.
In addition, an electronic pacemaker that replaces the damaged sinus node function has been developed and is already being used in clinical practice.
Nevertheless, Cornell Medical School scientists will continue to study sinus node damage in COVID-19 patients.
The research team is paying particular attention to the possibility that the ’embryonic stem cell-derived’ sinus node cell developed this time might be an alternative treatment.
cheon@yna.co.kr
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