At the level of mitochondria, mice and humans are pretty close analogues of eachother.
@JackHadfield14@birdsite
> 🔬New study shows SARS-CoV-2 causes direct damage to heart cell mitochondria - even months after recovery - helping potentially explain Long COVID heart symptoms like chest pain, palpitations & fatigue.
> Been waiting to have time to read this paper. Let’s break it down. 🧵
> Researchers studied 5 people who had COVID-19 weeks or months earlier. They all had new or unusual heart problems, like chest pain, irregular heartbeat, or even cardiac arrest.
> Each patient had a heart biopsy (a sample of heart tissue examined under a
> All 5 patients were diagnosed with myocarditis - inflammation and injury in heart muscle.
> But interestingly, it wasn’t typical myocarditis with large immune cell infiltration. Inflammation was mild.
> The key problem? Structural damage inside the heart muscle cells.
> Using electron microscopes, researchers saw that mitochondria - the energy-producing parts of cells - were swollen, full of holes, and missing their inner structure (cristae).
> This was found in 40-60% of mitochondria in each patient’s heart cells.
> This mitochondrial damage happened even in patients 2-3 months post-COVID, suggesting it can persist long after infection clears.
> Loss of cristae means the cell can’t produce enough energy (ATP), which could explain Long COVID symptoms like fatigue and heart issues.
>- Collagen buildup (fibrosis) in the heart muscle
>- Signs of cell aging (lipofuscin pigment)
> - Myofibril damage (these are structures needed for heart muscle contraction)
> All of this weakens heart function, even without visible scarring on MRI.
> One patient - a healthy 30-year-old man - collapsed during exercise due to cardiac arrest. He had no blocked arteries and no heart disease history.
> Biopsy revealed severe mitochondrial damage and mild myocarditis. He was 5 weeks post-COVID at the time.
> Another patient had chest pain, but normal heart imaging (CMR, echo, ECG). Only the biopsy showed mitochondrial injury and cell damage. This shows subclinical myocarditis is possible even when standard tests look normal.
> To confirm if the virus itself could cause this damage, researchers infected mice with Omicron BA.5.2 and BQ.1.
> 7 days after infection, the mouse heart cells showed the same type of mitochondrial disorganization: swelling, vacuoles, cristae loss.
sciencedirect.com/science/arti…
xcancel.com/JackHadfield14/sta…
Parker Banks
in reply to Jeff Cliff, B.Sc. 😷 🇮🇷🇱🇧🇨🇦🧯🏴☠️🦝🐙 🐧 • • •woodland creature
in reply to Parker Banks • • •>he's still posting about covid
Jeff Cliff, B.Sc. 😷 🇮🇷🇱🇧🇨🇦🧯🏴☠️🦝🐙 🐧
in reply to woodland creature • • •woodland creature
in reply to Jeff Cliff, B.Sc. 😷 🇮🇷🇱🇧🇨🇦🧯🏴☠️🦝🐙 🐧 • • •