Scientists uncover possible reason for rare COVID-19 vaccine myocarditis in new study
Scientists have uncovered a possible reason for a rare Covid-19 vaccine myocarditis in a new study.
A team of researchers believe they may have found the cause for myocarditis, which is associated with the Covid vaccine.
This comes after a new study discovered that the jab lowered the death rate.
What is myocarditis?
Myocarditis is a condition that causes an inflammation of the heart muscle, which can often follow viral infection. It can be a sudden development which can recur or even become chronic.
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While it is possible for most people to recover from the condition, for others, if it can be severe, and can even lead to the heart having to work harder, which as result, makes it weaker.
According to the British Heart Foundation, a link has been found between myocarditis and pericarditis (inflammation of the heart’s lining) and the Covid vaccine, although reports are rare.
In a new study, scientists have revealed what they believe could have driven cases of myocarditis, discovering a pair of immune signals they think are responsible.
Also known as cytokines, these molecules were present at higher levels in the blood of individuals who developed myocarditis after vaccination.
Scientists found that the signals - CXCL10 and interferon-gamma - could be created in labs when mice were vaccinated with the vaccines.
The team discovered that blocking the signals with antibodies reduced these symptoms in mice and in structures that mimic the human heart.
The study, published in the Science Translational Medicine journal, also discovered that genistein, found in legumes, could help reduce inflammation.
“I want to emphasize this is very, very rare. This study is purely to understand why. In those rare cases, what’s going on? People talk about it, and here we provide a mechanism,” Joe Wu, director of Stanford Cardiovascular Institute and study author, told Stat News.
Meanwhile, Kathryn Edwards, professor emerita at Vanderbilt University, also explained that mouse studies can often come with limitations.
Wu explained that the research team in this particular study had to use higher vaccine doses to ensure that myocarditis developed. The event was so rare that it would have taken 20,000 mice to come across the findings.
The British Heart Foundation also said that the Covid virus was more likely to cause myocarditis than the vaccine itself.
Around 7,102,614 people worldwide are understood to have died from Covid, with 227,000 people in the UK having the disease listed as their cause of death, the BBC reports.
The vaccine rollout was widely successful, with an estimated 67 per cent of the world's population having received a COVID-19 vaccine by December 2023, according to the WHO.