Studying Pneumonia in Space for Heart Health on Earth
Expedition 74 astronauts aboard the International Space Station are discovering how pneumonia-causing bacteria can lead to long-term heart damage. Researchers are leveraging the space environment to observe how stem cell-derived cardiac tissues respond to bacterial infections and discover new methods to manage cardiovascular health and infectious diseases.
In space, bacteria tend to be more severe and have increased drug resistance. Scientists exploit these features to exaggerate their effect on heart cells and reveal important cellular responses that would be difficult to detect on Earth. Identifying factors that exacerbate bacterial infections in space could reveal treatment targets. Dr. Palaniappan Sethu, professor of medicine and biomedical engineering at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, says: “By exacerbating infection, we anticipate a clear separation of infected and control groups, which will make it easier to identify the subtle factors that promote bacterial virulence.”
The Streptococcus pneumoniae bacteria is the leading cause of community-acquired pneumonia (CAP), an infection that causes millions of deaths each year. More than a quarter of adults hospitalized with CAP develop heart disease, and patients who survive severe cases are at increased risk even after pneumonia is completely eradicated.
This research is also important as humans venture further into space. For more than 25 years, researchers have used the space station to study how the human body and microbes respond to space, and deep space missions will require the strategies and knowledge we gain. “Answering these questions is critical to ensuring human health during long-duration space travel and to enabling sustainable habitation beyond Earth. Our experiments should generate new knowledge about how space-specific factors influence disease progression,” says Dr. Carlos J. Orihuela, professor of microbiology at the University of Alabama at Birmingham.
The space station allows researchers around the world to tackle complex human health problems on Earth and in space. Using the unique environmental factors aboard the space station allows for advanced study of disease formation, testing of drugs and diagnostic tools, and much more.
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