“At this time, we don’t understand why certain viruses infect the heart or what they do at the molecular level that leads to arrhythmias,” Smyth said. “This work will investigate and shed new light on how viral infection of the heart muscle actually leads to sudden cardiac arrest.”
Smyth’s lab at the Fralin Biomedical Research Institute examines how heart cells communicate with each other to keep the heart beating.
Gap junctions are one of the most important communication mechanisms between heart cells. They are responsible for electrically connecting the heart muscle cells, which in turn produces a healthy, beating heart.
But when a virus targets cells in our bodies, disrupting the gap junctions, it interferes with the heart’s electrical system, creating an irregular heartbeat and sometimes causing sudden cardiac death.
In addition to providing electrical signals in the heart, gap junctions allow cells to communicate. That includes alerting each other, and the immune system, of a viral infection.
Smyth’s team will investigate how viruses evolve to attack this biology in order to evade the immune response.
According to Smyth, certain viruses generally target the respiratory system. By targeting the gap junctions and replicating cells lining the lung, they cause only minor irritation in the lungs that leads to coughing. However, when they enter and infect the heart, the very process of stopping gap junction function can become fatal.
The study includes work being carried out in the institute’s state-of-the-art Biosafety Level 3 facility, which is used to study infectious agents or toxins that can be transmitted through the air.
To understand at the molecular level how viruses wreak havoc on the cardiac landscape, Smyth has partnered with Steven Poelzing, Samy Lamouille and Sharon Swanger of the Fralin Biomedical Research Institute. Team members draw on their specialties in electrophysiology, cancer biology, and neuroscience to help inform preventive and therapeutic treatment.
“Can we intervene? Can we prevent progression to this disease state? But also, can we quickly diagnose people who have these particular viruses infecting their hearts and can we treat them and save their lives? Smith said.
Smyth, who is also an associate professor in the Department of Biological Sciences in the College of Science, is recruiting team members, including a research associate and a postdoctoral associate, to join his research team at the Fralin Biomedical Research Institute.
Source: news.google.com