A study in older people with atherosclerotic plaque who died from COVID-19 found that SARS-CoV-2 can directly infect coronary vessels, inducing plaque inflammation that could trigger acute cardiovascular complications and increase long-term cardiovascular risk. Researchers found that SARS-CoV-2 viral RNA is detectable and replicates in coronary lesions taken at autopsy from severe COVID-19 cases. They took arterial and plaque cells, including macrophages and foam cells, from healthy patients and infected them with SARS-CoV-2 in the lab and found that the virus could replicate in these cells and tissues.