New treatment may prevent heart damage from COVID-19

An experimental drug could stop the virus from infecting heart cells.

An experimental drug has stopped the coronavirus from entering lab-grown heart cells — a sign that it may be able to prevent heart damage from COVID-19.

The challenge: COVID-19 might target the respiratory system first, but it doesn’t stop there — an infection can damage every major organ in the body.

While we have effective vaccines to prevent COVID-19, we’re still short on treatments for the disease, and once an infection takes hold, there’s no way for doctors to guarantee it won’t spread to other organs, including the heart.

People with heart problems are more than four times as likely to die from COVID-19.

Why it matters: Survivors who sustain heart damage from COVID-19 are more likely to experience long COVID — symptoms that linger after an infection clears. 

People who had heart problems before contracting COVID-19, meanwhile, are at higher risk of complications from the disease and more than four times as likely to die from it.

Preventing heart damage from COVID-19: In recent years, researchers have begun using stem cells to grow tiny models of organs in the lab. These “organoids” can mimic the structure and function of human organs and can be used to test new disease treatments.

At the University of Cambridge, researchers grew mini hearts so advanced, the cells actually beat as if pumping blood. They then exposed their lab-grown organoids to a ​​synthetic virus they’d equipped with the coronavirus’s spike protein.

“The spike protein is like a key … DX600 acts like gum, jamming the lock’s mechanism.”

Anthony Davenport

In addition to studying how the virus infected the heart cells, the researchers also tested the ability of a variety of drugs to prevent an infection — and discovered that an experimental drug called DX600 appeared to be an effective blocker.

“The spike protein is like a key that fits into the ‘lock’ on the surface of the cells — the ACE2 receptor — allowing it entry,” researcher Anthony Davenport said. “DX600 acts like gum, jamming the lock’s mechanism, making it much more difficult for the key to turn and unlock the cell door.”

The number of heart cells didn’t decrease after treatment with DX600, either, which hints that the drug isn’t likely to be toxic.

The next steps: Being able to stop an infection in a clump of cells isn’t the same as preventing heart damage from COVID-19, so more testing is needed to find out if  DX600 works as hoped in patients. 

The coronavirus can damage the heart indirectly, too, by lowering blood oxygen levels, causing blood clots, and more, so people could still sustain cardiovascular damage even if direct infection of heart cells is blocked.

Still, if DX600 does prove safe and effective, it could be a powerful weapon in the fight against COVID-19.

“We need to do further research on this drug, but it could provide us with a new treatment to help reduce harm to the heart in patients recently infected with the virus,” Davenport said, “particularly those who already have underlying heart conditions or who have not been vaccinated.” 

“We believe it may also help reduce the symptoms of long COVID,” he added.

We’d love to hear from you! If you have a comment about this article or if you have a tip for a future Freethink story, please email us at tips@freethink.com.

Related
Insulin grown in lettuce can be taken orally
New synthetic insulin harvested from lettuce plants can be made cheaply, taken orally, and transported at room temperature.
Cancer med appears to prevent brain aneurysms
Japanese researchers have discovered that the cancer drug sunitinib can prevent the formation of brain aneurysms in mice.
SpaceX successfully launches world’s first “space factory”
SpaceX has successfully deployed a “space factory” developed by startup Varda Space Industries to manufacture drugs in microgravity.
Cheap drug appears to cut long COVID risk by 41% in small study
The diabetes drug metformin cut COVID-19 patients’ risk of later developing long COVID by 41% in a small study.
90% of patients respond to new blood cancer treatment in trial
Israeli researchers have developed a new form of CAR-T therapy effective against multiple myeloma, a plasma cell cancer.
Up Next
drug for Alzheimer's
Subscribe to Freethink for more great stories