Weckbach LT, Schweizer L, Kraechan A, et al. - Patients with SARS-CoV-2 infection frequently show myocardial injury. Via performing integration of histologic, transcriptomic, and proteomic profiling, researchers herein examined the inflammatory cardiac phenotype linked with SARS-CoV-2 infection compared with viral myocarditis, immune-mediated myocarditis, and noninflammatory cardiomyopathy.

• This is a case series of 19 patients with suspected myocarditis; 5 of these patients were hospitalized with SARS-CoV-2 infection.

• Comparison was performed between cardiac tissue specimens from these 5 patients and specimens retrieved from 5 patients with immune-mediated myocarditis, 4 patients with non–SARS-CoV-2 viral myocarditis, and 5 patients with noninflammatory cardiomyopathy.

• Findings revealed a higher abundance of complement-associated factors and serine/threonine protein kinases in cardiac specimens of patients with SARS-CoV-2 infection; mitogen-activated protein kinase–associated pathways had the highest abundance.

• The cardiac immune signature among those with SARS-CoV-2 infection and viral myocarditis showed similarities.

• The gained data may have implications for the development of therapeutic strategies to lower SARS-CoV-2–mediated tissue injury.