In recent years, scientists have been able to grow 'mini-organs' out of organoids, tissue cultures from an individual's induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSC). A new study shows how SARS-CoV-2 pathogens can infect heart muscle cells grown in a lab.
Coronavirus was originally defined by respiratory symptoms such as shortness of breath, fever, and coughing. However, scientists have recently observed that the virus attacks other organs as well.
Dr. Eric Topol, a cardiologist from the Scripps Research Translational Institute in La Jolla, California, said, it 'turns out, it goes after the pancreas. It goes after the heart. It goes after the liver, the brain, the kidney, and other organs.'
Patients with pre-existing cardiac conditions have become some of the most vulnerable people to coronavirus, even resulting in death. Before these new experiments, there was very little evidence of the virus attacking heart cells directly.
Lab-Grown Heart Muscle Cells
'We not only uncovered that these stem cell-derived heart cells are susceptible to infection by novel coronavirus, but that the virus can also quickly divide within the heart muscle cells,' said Arun Sharma, Ph.D., a researcher at the Cedars-Sinai Board of Governors Regenerative Medicine Institute. She also noted the significance of the infected heart cells changing their ability to beat 72 hours after the initial infection.
When the SARS-CoV-2 pathogens attached to the lab-grown heart muscle cells, the organ gene expression profile changed. This confirmed that organ defense mechanisms made an effort to protect itself from the invasion.
Since the heart muscles grown in the laboratory are derived from stem cells, it is an imperfect replicate of how the virus moves within the body. However, these new findings may help identify new antiviral compounds as the virus makes its way to the heart.
Dr. Clive Svendsen, the director of the Regenerative Medicine Institute and professor of Biomedical Sciences and Medicine, said, 'This viral pandemic is predominately defined by respiratory symptoms, but there are also cardiac complications, including arrhythmias, heart failure, and viral myocarditis.' As a result, massive inflammation might be the body's response to the virus as it may affect eh heart directly.
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Entry Point Into the Heart
The team also discovered how an ACE2 antibody, the protein receptor that coronavirus attaches to, alleviated COVID-19 replication in the mini-heart cells. It is also likely that the ACE2 receptor is the virus' entry point into the human heart muscle cells.
Dr. Sharma shared that blocking the ACE2 protein with an antibody will hinder the virus from entering healthy cells. The experiment 'not only helps us understand the mechanisms of how this virus functions, but also suggests therapeutic approaches that could be used as a potential treatment for SARS-CoV-2 infection.'
Dr. Eduardo Marbá, from the Smidt Heart Institute, said that there is power in being able to make these scientific discoveries using human tissue in a dish. 'It is plausible that direct infection of cardiac muscle cells may contribute to COVID-related heart disease.'
Dr. Vaithilingaraja Arumugaswami from the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA and member of the Eli and Edythe Broad Center of Regenerative Medicine and Stem Cell Research said, 'This key experimental system could be useful to understand the differences in disease processes of related coronaviral pathogens, SARS and MERS.'
