Distinct immune activation in COVID-19-related myocarditis
2025
Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin, Berlin, Germany(1)
Max Delbrück Center, Berlin, Germany(2)
Max Delbrück Center, Berlin, Germany(2)
This study examined the differences in heart inflammation caused by COVID-19, COVID-19 vaccination, and non-COVID-19 myocarditis. Single-nucleus RNA sequencing was performed on left ventricular endomyocardial biopsies from patients with these three different etiologies of myocarditis. Differential gene expression analysis was performed to identify disease-specific expression profiles. Distinct cytokine expression patterns were observed, emphasizing the central role of interferon-γ in post-COVID-19 myocarditis and the upregulation of IL16 and IL18 as key markers of post-vaccination myocarditis. In order to identify disease-specific changes in the proportion of cells, compositional analyses were conducted. It was found that in the post-vaccination group, CD4+ T cells were more abundant whereas in the post-COVID-19 group, CD8+ T cells tended to be more dominant. Endothelial cells showed gene expression changes indicative of vascular barrier dysfunction in the post-COVID-19 group, along with ongoing angiogenesis across all groups. These findings highlight both shared and distinct mechanisms driving myocarditis in patients with and without a history of COVID-19 infection or vaccination.
The cellular and molecular cardiac tissue responses in human inflammatory cardiomyopathies after SARS-CoV-2 infection and COVID-19 vaccination
Carsten Tschöpe(1), Norbert Hubner(1), Henrike Maatz(2)
Added on: 03-18-2025
[1] https://www.nature.com/articles/s44161-025-00612-6
