Shawdesh Desk:

The virus that causes COVID-19, SARS-CoV-2, has a particular protein that harms heart cells, according to research.

Researchers found the drug to counteract the protein’s damaging effects on the heart. Their findings, based on research by the University of Maryland School of Medicine’s (UMSOM) Center for Precision Disease Modeling with fruit flies and mouse heart cells, were published on September 30, 2022, in Communications Biology, a Nature journal.

People infected with COVID-19 are at a significantly higher risk for developing inflammation of the heart muscle, abnormal heart rhythms, blood clots, stroke, heart attacks, and heart failure for at least a year after infection, compared to those who have not been infected with the virus. Although scientists rapidly developed vaccines and medications to lessen the severity of COVID-19 disease, these therapies do not protect the heart or other organs from the damage that can be done by even a mild infection.

Typically, heart cells use fatty acids as an energy source, but switch over to sugar metabolism during heart failure as these cells to try to repair the damaged tissue.

“Too many Americans who have recovered from COVID wind up with dangerous heart conditions weeks or months later,” said Mark T. Gladwin, MD, Vice President for Medical Affairs at University of Maryland, Baltimore and the John Z. and Akiko K. Bowers Distinguished Professor and Dean, UMSOM. “With this research elucidating the pathways of the Nsp6 protein, we can refine the treatments we target for future research with the ultimate aim of reversing further heart damage in these patients.”

Source: Hindustan Times reported