Cell-Specific Mechanisms in the Heart of COVID-19 Patients

From the onset of the pandemic, evidence of cardiac involvement in acute COVID-19 abounded. Cardiac presentations ranged from arrhythmias to ischemia, myopericarditis/myocarditis, ventricular dysfunction to acute heart failure, and even cardiogenic shock. Elevated serum cardiac troponin levels were prevalent among hospitalized patients with COVID-19; the higher the magnitude of troponin elevation, the greater the COVID-19 illness severity and in-hospital death risk. Whether these consequences were due to direct SARS-CoV-2 infection of cardiac cells or secondary to inflammatory responses steered early cardiac autopsy studies. SARS-CoV-2 was reportedly detected in endothelial cells, cardiac myocytes, and within the extracellular space. However, findings were inconsistent and different methodologies had their limitations. Initial autopsy reports suggested that SARS-CoV-2 myocarditis was common, setting off studies to find and phenotype inflammatory infiltrates in the heart. Nonetheless, subsequent studies rarely detected myocarditis. Microthrombi, cardiomyocyte necrosis, and inflammatory infiltrates without cardiomyocyte damage were much more common. In vitro and ex vivo experimental platforms have assessed the cellular tropism of SARS-CoV-2 and elucidated mechanisms of viral entry into and replication within cardiac cells. Data point to pericytes as the primary target of SARS-CoV-2 in the heart. Infection of pericytes can account for the observed pericyte and endothelial cell death, innate immune response, and immunothrombosis commonly observed in COVID-19 hearts. These processes are bidirectional and synergistic, rendering a definitive order of events elusive. Single-cell/nucleus analyses of COVID-19 myocardial tissue and isolated cardiac cells have provided granular data about the cellular composition and cell type-specific transcriptomic signatures of COVID-19 and microthrombi-positive COVID-19 hearts. Still, much remains unknown and more in vivo studies are needed. This review seeks to provide an overview of the current understanding of COVID-19 cardiac pathophysiology. Cell type-specific mechanisms and the studies that provided such insights will be highlighted. Given the unprecedented pace of COVID-19 research, more mechanistic details are sure to emerge since the writing of this review. Importantly, our current knowledge offers significant clues about the cardiac pathophysiology of long COVID-19, the increased postrecovery risk of cardiac events, and thus, the future landscape of cardiovascular disease.

Errataetall:

ErratumIn: Circ Res. 2023 Jun 23;133(1):e18. - PMID 37347837

Medienart:

E-Artikel

Erscheinungsjahr:

2023

Erschienen:

2023

Enthalten in:

Zur Gesamtaufnahme - volume:132

Enthalten in:

Circulation research - 132(2023), 10 vom: 12. Mai, Seite 1290-1301

Sprache:

Englisch

Beteiligte Personen:

Tsai, Emily J [VerfasserIn]
Cˇiháková, Daniela [VerfasserIn]
Tucker, Nathan R [VerfasserIn]

Links:

Volltext

Themen:

COVID-19
Endothelial cells
Journal Article
Myocardium
Pericytes
Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural
Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
Review
Single-cell analysis
Thromboinflammation
Troponin
Viral tropism

Anmerkungen:

Date Completed 15.05.2023

Date Revised 22.06.2023

published: Print-Electronic

ErratumIn: Circ Res. 2023 Jun 23;133(1):e18. - PMID 37347837

Citation Status MEDLINE

doi:

10.1161/CIRCRESAHA.123.321876

funding:

Förderinstitution / Projekttitel:

PPN (Katalog-ID):

NLM356702480