Project description:Heart injury has been reported in up to 20% of COVID-19 patients, yet the cause of myocardial histopathology is unknown. We examined heart tissue from autopsies of healthy and COVID-19 patients using RNA-seq and identified a strikingly increased CCL2 expression and macrophage population in COVID-19 heart sample. Transwell assays using hESC-derived cardiomyocytes (CMs) and macrophages revealed that SARS-CoV-2 infected CMs secrete CCL2, which recruits macrophages, and this was validated using adult human CMs. Macrophages recruited by CCL2 from infected CMs secrete IL-6 and TNF-α, which causes increased ROS and cell apoptosis of CMs. Finally, a high content chemical screen using FDA-approved drugs identified ranolozine and tofacitinib, which rescue SARS-CoV-2 infected CMs from macrophages-induced cardiotoxicity.
Project description:Heart injury has been reported in up to 20% of COVID-19 patients, yet the cause of myocardial histopathology is unknown. We examined heart tissue from autopsies of healthy and COVID-19 patients using RNA-seq and identified a strikingly increased CCL2 expression and macrophage population in COVID-19 heart sample. Transwell assays using hESC-derived cardiomyocytes (CMs) and macrophages revealed that SARS-CoV-2 infected CMs secrete CCL2, which recruits macrophages, and this was validated using adult human CMs. Macrophages recruited by CCL2 from infected CMs secrete IL-6 and TNF-α, which causes increased ROS and cell apoptosis of CMs. Finally, a high content chemical screen using FDA-approved drugs identified ranolozine and tofacitinib, which rescue SARS-CoV-2 infected CMs from macrophages-induced cardiotoxicity.
Project description:Heart injury has been reported in up to 20% of COVID-19 patients, yet the cause of myocardial histopathology remains unknown. Here, using an established in vivo hamster model, we demonstrate that SARS-CoV-2 can be detected in cardiomyocytes of infected animals. Furthermore, we found damaged cardiomyocytes in hamsters and COVID-19 autopsy samples. To explore the mechanism, we show that both human pluripotent stem cell-derived cardiomyocytes (hPSC-derived CMs) and adult cardiomyocytes (CMs) can be productively infected by SARS-CoV-2, leading to secretion of the monocyte chemoattractant cytokine CCL2 and subsequent monocyte recruitment. Increased CCL2 expression and monocyte infiltration was also observed in the hearts of infected hamsters. Although infected CMs suffer damage, we find that the presence of macrophages significantly reduces SARS-CoV-2-infected CMs. Overall, our study provides direct evidence that SARS-CoV-2 infects CMs in vivo and suggests a mechanism of immune cell infiltration and histopathology in heart tissues of COVID-19 patients.
