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Journalism of Courage
NEW DELHI, Feb 28: Startling new evidence suggests that heart attacks or chronic heart disease (CHD) could also be precipitated as a result of some common bacterial infections. Researchers are excited at this first evidence that directly links inflamed hearts and a bacterial infection. This could have great impact on how heart patients are treated and in future hopefully, most may just be treated with cheap routine antibiotics, which could actually prove to be an important weapon against heart attacks.
Based on circumstantial evidence, some experts have always opined that bacteria of the sort that cause peptic ulcers and eye infections had some link to heart attacks but till date hard evidence has evaded this small minority of biomedical scientists.
The common belief till now has been that most heart problems are lifestyle-related, with obese couch potatoes being most prone. But this new finding published in the latest issue of the well-known American magazine Science just might explain why some timesphysically fit people also suffer from sudden heart ailments.
The first hints that bacteria could actually be involved in causing a heart condition was satisfactorily demonstrated by a non-resident Indian, Dr Sandeep Gupta, working at Saint George’s Hospital in London some time ago. He found that patients if treated with certain antibiotics were less prone to subsequent heart attacks. Though Gupta’s research provided the necessary clues but the exact link eluded him. The latest finding suggests that bacteria called Chlamydia employ a sneaky tactic known as molecular mimicry’ that triggers an auto-immune response in the host which ultimately leads to inflammation of the heart.
In the past, several epidemiological studies, which track the occurrence of disease in large populations, have shown an intriguing correlation between Chlamydia infections and heart disease. Until now, however, the mechanism that might link the two has remained a mystery. It is clear that both disorders are significant publichealth problems. Chlamydia is a primary cause of sexually transmitted diseases (STD) and female infertility, and can also cause eye infections and pneumonia in children.
Now Canadian researchers say that like the proverbial wolf in sheep’s clothing, some pathogens carry proteins on their surfaces that are almost identical to proteins on the host’s cells.These proteins enable the pathogens to evade the host’s immune system by passing’ as part of the host’s own body. Sometimes, however, the immune system is not fooled by this subterfuge and launches an attack.
An autoimmune disorder arises when the attack damages the host’s cells in the process.Chlamydia infections are so common that most people can expect to experience at least one during their lifetime. In the researchers’ mouse model, whether or not an infection led to heart disease depended on genetic differences among the various strains of inbred mice. The researchers speculate that genetic and environmental risk factors may also predispose certainhumans to Chlamydia-mediated heart disease.
K K Agarwal, a practicing cardiologist and vice-president of Heart Care Foundation, New Delhi and who now readily prescribes antibiotics to treat heart patients says these bacterial infections are one of the precipitating factors but CHD actually has a multi-factorial origin and unhealthy lifestyles play a crucial role.
He feels antibiotics will not cure an already existing heart disease but could certainly check the rapid progression of the heart condition.If proved, this new evidence could just make treatment of heart attacks at least for some of the patients within easy reach for the poor in India who are today not in a position to afford expensive and traumatic bypass surgeries.
