After a Heart Attack, the Heart Talks to the Brain - and the Brain Responds
New research connects heart attacks to brain, nervous and immune systems
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Researchers at the University of California San Diego have discovered an unexpected communication circuit between the heart, brain and immune system that shapes how the heart responds after a heart attack. The findings, published in Cell, reveal that signals triggered by cardiac injury travel to the brain and then feed back to the heart through neural and immune pathways, amplifying inflammation and tissue damage.
The study was led by senior authors Dr. Kevin R. King, a cardiologist and associate professor of bioengineering and medicine, and Vineet Augustine, assistant professor in neurobiology at UC San Diego, along with their research groups.
Heart attacks occur when blood flow to the heart is blocked, depriving tissue of oxygen. While restoring blood flow remains the most effective treatment, many patients develop long-term complications even after successful intervention. To understand why, the researchers looked beyond the heart itself.
Dr. Kevin King is one of the two lead authors of the Cell study and a faculty member in the Shu Chien Gene Lay Department of Bioengineering, as well as a cardiologist at UC San Diego.
“We tend to think of a heart attack as a plumbing problem that starts and ends in the heart. What this study shows is that the heart immediately engages the brain and immune system, and that conversation can actually make the injury worse,” Dr. King said.
The teams perturbed each node of the circuit — from sensory nerves in the heart to key brain regions and sympathetic nerve centers — and measured the consequences using advanced single-cell and spatial genomic technologies, electrocardiography and imaging. They found that nerve cells in the heart rapidly signal to the brain, which in turn activates stress-related pathways that send signals back to the heart via a neuroimmune loop. This feedback loop intensifies inflammation, expands the injured region and impairs recovery.
When the researchers interrupted the circuit at multiple points, heart damage was reduced, electrical activity stabilized and cardiac function improved.
The findings reframe heart attack recovery as a whole-body process rather than a localized injury. By revealing how neural and immune signaling influence healing, the study opens the door to therapies that complement traditional treatments by targeting the body’s own communication networks.
“As a cardiologist, I see patients every day who survive a heart attack but struggle with long-term complications. Understanding these heart–brain–immune signals gives us entirely new places to intervene beyond reopening an artery,” King said.
Study: A triple-node heart-brain neuroimmune loop underlying myocardial infarction
Related story: New Research Connects Heart Attacks to Brain, Nervous and Immune Systems
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