Research Reveals Mechanism Underlying Virus-induced Cardiac Inflammation And Offers Possible Treatment Targets

Oct, 2022 - By SMI

Since inflammation plays a role in a number of heart illnesses, addressing the inflammasome researchers represent a novel and largely unexplored possibility in heart failure research and therapies.

Inflammation , a defence mechanism that aids in the elimination of invasive organisms through a number of immunological reactions. They include a sizable a group of sensors known as oligomerization leucine rich repeat-containing proteins and nucleotide binding. These methods may however, occasionally be taken over by pathogens with negative results. When a virus infects cardiac tissue, it causes chaos by inducing an inflammatory reaction that may ultimately result in cell death. The function of a pathogen-detecting sensor in this response has now been discovered by a team of researchers from Singapore and Canada, and it has been shown that targeting it may stop the development of heart failure.

A greater comprehension of the kinds and functions of oligomerization leucine rich repeat-containing proteins and inflammasomes in the heart, according to researchers, could result in fresh therapies that halt the progression of infections into heart failure. They are able to discover that the two most significant sensors in the heart are CARD8 and NLRP1 .

There isn't much information available about CARD8, however, the scientists found that the Coxsackievirus B3 (CVB3) virus uses this sensor to initiate a chronic inflammatory response. Viral myocarditis, an inflammation of the heart that can occasionally develop into cardiomyopathy and heart failure, is most frequently caused by CVB3. By cleaving portions of CARD8 with the help of these proteins, CVB3, the virus is able to continue reproducing and harming cardiac cells.

As researchers continue to research this sensor to understand how it is controlled and functions, the team is trying to find strategies to target CARD8 in heart disorders and cardiovascular inflammation.