Human Pluripotent Stem Cell-Derived Cardiomyocytes for COVID-19 Cardiovascular Complications: A Versatile In Vitro Model for Studying Acute and Chronic SARS-CoV-2 Infection

Purpose of ReviewIn this review, we provide an overview of the benefit, limitations and major findings using human pluripotent stem cell-derived cardiomyocytes (hPSC-CMs) for COVID-19 research.Recent FindingsHPSC-CMs offer a highly translational platform for mechanistic and drug screening studies. HPSC-CM models demonstrated that both direct infection and activation of immune response modify the structure, transcriptome and function of cardiomyocytes. Importantly, treatments that block viral infection, replication and/or target inflammation showed promising results in preventing and reducing cardiac damage.SummaryThe cardiac effects of COVID-19 are complex and require robust, cost-effective and scalable models. During the acute phase of infection, results from hPSC-CMs studies improved our understanding of COVID-19 cardiac complications. To better characterize the long-term risk of SARS-CoV-2 infection, in vitro models integrating multiple cell types, bioengineering platforms and in silico analysis are necessary and can inform the development of novel strategies for treating long COVID.