On May 17, 2022, pedestrians passed a new coronavirus test site in Times Square, New York, USA. (Photo by Wang Ying, Xinhua News Agency)
The University of Queensland, Australia recently announced that a new study revealed how the new coronavirus has an impact on the heart and its differences with the influenza virus on the heart, which provides an idea for treating heart damage caused by the new coronavirus infection.
This study, led by University of Queensland, has been published in the monthly issue of Immunology. Dr. Kurasinha of the University of Queensland, one of the authors of the study, said: "Compared with the influenza pandemic in 2009, the new coronary has caused more serious and long-term cardiovascular disease, but at the molecular level, it is unclear what factors cause this phenomenon."
According to reports, the new study used cardiac tissue samples collected from the remains of 7 new coronary patients, 2 influenza patients and 6 control patients for analysis.
results show that researchers found strong inflammation in the heart samples of influenza patients, while tissue changes related to DNA damage and repair were found in the heart samples of patients with COVID-19. Researchers say the coronavirus is likely to have a direct impact on the heart's DNA, not just a chain reaction by triggering inflammation.
Kurasinha said DNA damage and repair mechanisms can cause genome instability and are related to chronic diseases such as diabetes , cancer, atherosclerosis and neurodegenerative diseases.
University of Queensland professor John Fraser said the study showed that the coronavirus and influenza viruses have different effects on heart tissue, which provides more evidence that the coronavirus is not "similar to the flu virus." The team hopes to conduct in-depth investigations through a larger-scale cohort study .
(Original title "New research reveals how the new coronavirus affects the heart". Edited by Zhang Hui)
