SEVERE PNEUMONIA MAY PERMANENTLY DAMAGE HEART
Severe pneumonia may permanently damage your
heart as pneumonia bacterium leaves tiny lesions in the heart, a study
suggests.
The researchers found proof that Streptococcus pneumoniae, the
leading cause of community-acquired pneumonia, actually physically damages the
heart.
The researchers detected tiny lesions that the bacterium leaves
in mouse, rhesus macaque and human autopsy tissue samples.
"If you have had severe pneumonia, this finding suggests
your heart might be permanently scarred," said study senior author Carlos
Orihuela, associate professor of microbiology and immunology at The University
of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio, US.
Streptococcus pneumoniae in the blood invaded the heart and
formed lesions in the myocardium, the muscular middle layer of the heart wall,
the researchers showed.
The team identified mechanisms by which the
bacterium is able to spread across endothelial cells in cardiac blood vessels
to travel to and infect the heart.
"Fortunately, we have a candidate vaccine that can protect
against this," Orihuela noted.
The candidate vaccine acts to stop both the movement of the
infection into the heart and the toxin that kills heart muscle cells called
cardiomyocytes.
The vaccine protected immunized animals against cardiac lesion
formation, the study showed.
The study appeared in the journal PLoS Pathogen
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