Infection may trigger heart attack, a groundbreaking new study has found.
Researchers have discovered that a viral infection may trigger processes which cause dormant bacteria to increase and prompt an inflammatory response. This can ultimately lead to heart attack.
The findings challenge experts’ previous understanding of how heart attacks develop and could pave the way for new types of treatment and even vaccines.
Using cutting-edge techniques to explore coronary artery disease, researchers found that atherosclerotic plaques (the build-up of fats and cholesterol in the arteries) may contain a biofilm formed by bacteria over a long period of time.
Dormant bacteria in the biofilm are protected from both the individual’s immune system and antibiotics because neither can break through the biofilm matrix.
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However, an external trigger such as a viral infection may activate the biofilm, causing inflammation which leads to thrombus formation and heart attack.
Professor Pekka Karhunen, who led the study by UK and Finnish researchers, said: “Bacterial involvement in coronary artery disease has long been suspected, but direct and convincing evidence has been lacking.
“Our study demonstrated the presence of genetic material – DNA – from several oral bacteria inside atherosclerotic plaques.”
The findings were verified after an antibody was developed to target the bacteria present, which showed biofilm structures in arterial tissue.
In cases of heart attack, the biofilm released bacteria which the immune system responded to by triggering inflammation which in turn ruptured the cholesterol-heavy plaque.
