How Australian Scientists Discovered a New Immune Pathway in Rheumatic Heart Disease?
🌏 Available in: English | 한국어 An Australian Discovery Reveals a Dysregulated Immune Pathway in Acute Rheumatic Fever How a Common Infection Can Lead to Lifelong Heart Disease Every year, hundreds of millions of people are infected with Group A Streptococcus (GAS). For almost everyone, it is a routine infection that disappears within days. But for a small number of people, the real disease begins only after the bacteria are gone. Years later, their immune system continues attacking the heart, eventually causing permanent valve damage known as rheumatic heart disease. Why does this happen? In 2018, Australian researchers reported a discovery in Circulation that provided a new piece of the puzzle, revealing an immune pathway that may help explain why inflammation persists long after the initial infection has resolved. Molecular Mimicry: When Immune Cells That Fight Bacteria Turn Against the Heart For decades, scientists believed that molecular mimicry was the primary mechanism under...