By Dr Timothy Swinn
Covid-19 is well recognised to lead to a range of cardiac symptoms and condition however the mechanism remains unclear. A recent study published in Immunology1 has shed some light on this and suggests that DNA damage may be responsible. The investigators conducted spatial transcriptomics on rapid autopsy samples to assess which genes were up and downregulated in the hearts of patients with Covid (7), compared to influenza A (2) and controls. SARS-CoV-2 was not detected in the samples from covid patients however genes associated with DNA damage and repair were upregulated. This differed from the pattern seen in the influenza patients where interferon I and III and complement pathways were upregulated instead.
The study is limited by its small sample size, however it offers potential insight into the mechanism underlying SARS-CoV-2-induced cardiac injury. Further research is required to assess whether this represents the full spectrum of covid-related cardiac disease and whether DNA damage could explain other extrapulmonary manifestations of Covid.
References
- Kulasinghe A, Liu N, Tan CW, Monkman J, Sinclair JE, Bhuva DD, et al. Transcriptomic profiling of cardiac tissues from SARS-CoV-2 patients identifies DNA damage. Immunology [Internet]. [cited 2022 Oct 7];n/a(n/a). Available from: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/imm.13577
