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Boulay E, Troncy E, Jacquemet V, Huang H, Pugsley MK, Downey AM, Venegas Baca R, Authier S. In Silico Human Cardiomyocyte Action Potential Modeling: Exploring Ion Channel Input Combinations. Int J Toxicol 2024:10915818241237988. [PMID: 38477622 DOI: 10.1177/10915818241237988] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 03/14/2024]
Abstract
In silico modeling offers an opportunity to supplement and accelerate cardiac safety testing. With in silico modeling, computational simulation methods are used to predict electrophysiological interactions and pharmacological effects of novel drugs on critical physiological processes. The O'Hara-Rudy's model was developed to predict the response to different ion channel inhibition levels on cardiac action potential duration (APD) which is known to directly correlate with the QT interval. APD data at 30% 60% and 90% inhibition were derived from the model to delineate possible ventricular arrhythmia scenarios and the marginal contribution of each ion channel to the model. Action potential values were calculated for epicardial, myocardial, and endocardial cells, with action potential curve modeling. This study assessed cardiac ion channel inhibition data combinations to consider when undertaking in silico modeling of proarrhythmic effects as stipulated in the Comprehensive in Vitro Proarrhythmia Assay (CiPA). As expected, our data highlight the importance of the delayed rectifier potassium channel (IKr) as the most impactful channel for APD prolongation. The impact of the transient outward potassium channel (Ito) inhibition on APD was minimal while the inward rectifier (IK1) and slow component of the delayed rectifier potassium channel (IKs) also had limited APD effects. In contrast, the contribution of fast sodium channel (INa) and/or L-type calcium channel (ICa) inhibition resulted in substantial APD alterations supporting the pharmacological relevance of in silico modeling using input from a limited number of cardiac ion channels including IKr, INa, and ICa, at least at an early stage of drug development.
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Affiliation(s)
- Emmanuel Boulay
- GREPAQ (Groupe de Recherche en Pharmacologie Animale du Québec), Université de Montréal, Saint-Hyacinthe, QC, Canada
- Charles River Laboratories, Laval, QC, Canada
| | - Eric Troncy
- GREPAQ (Groupe de Recherche en Pharmacologie Animale du Québec), Université de Montréal, Saint-Hyacinthe, QC, Canada
| | - Vincent Jacquemet
- Département de Pharmacologie et Physiologie, Université de Montréal, Faculté de Médecine, Montréal, QC, Canada
- Centre de Recherche, Hôpital du Sacré-Cœur, Montréal, QC, Canada
- Institut de Génie Biomédical, Université de Montréal, Montréal, QC, Canada
| | - Hai Huang
- Charles River Laboratories, Laval, QC, Canada
| | - Michael K Pugsley
- Toxicology & Safety Pharmacology, Cytokinetics, San Francisco, CA, USA
| | | | | | - Simon Authier
- GREPAQ (Groupe de Recherche en Pharmacologie Animale du Québec), Université de Montréal, Saint-Hyacinthe, QC, Canada
- Charles River Laboratories, Laval, QC, Canada
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Llopis-Lorente J, Baroudi S, Koloskoff K, Mora MT, Basset M, Romero L, Benito S, Dayan F, Saiz J, Trenor B. Combining pharmacokinetic and electrophysiological models for early prediction of drug-induced arrhythmogenicity. Comput Methods Programs Biomed 2023; 242:107860. [PMID: 37844488 DOI: 10.1016/j.cmpb.2023.107860] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/30/2023] [Revised: 09/28/2023] [Accepted: 10/10/2023] [Indexed: 10/18/2023]
Abstract
BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE In silico methods are gaining attention for predicting drug-induced Torsade de Pointes (TdP) in different stages of drug development. However, many computational models tended not to account for inter-individual response variability due to demographic covariates, such as sex, or physiologic covariates, such as renal function, which may be crucial when predicting TdP. This study aims to compare the effects of drugs in male and female populations with normal and impaired renal function using in silico methods. METHODS Pharmacokinetic models considering sex and renal function as covariates were implemented from data published in pharmacokinetic studies. Drug effects were simulated using an electrophysiologically calibrated population of cellular models of 300 males and 300 females. The population of models was built by modifying the endocardial action potential model published by O'Hara et al. (2011) according to the experimentally measured gene expression levels of 12 ion channels. RESULTS Fifteen pharmacokinetic models for CiPA drugs were implemented and validated in this study. Eight pharmacokinetic models included the effect of renal function and four the effect of sex. The mean difference in action potential duration (APD) between male and female populations was 24.9 ms (p<0.05). Our simulations indicated that women with impaired renal function were particularly susceptible to drug-induced arrhythmias, whereas healthy men were less prone to TdP. Differences between patient groups were more pronounced for high TdP-risk drugs. The proposed in silico tool also revealed that individuals with impaired renal function, electrophysiologically simulated with hyperkalemia (extracellular potassium concentration [K+]o = 7 mM) exhibited less pronounced APD prolongation than individuals with normal potassium levels. The pharmacokinetic/electrophysiological framework was used to determine the maximum safe dose of dofetilide in different patient groups. As a proof of concept, 3D simulations were also run for dofetilide obtaining QT prolongation in accordance with previously reported clinical values. CONCLUSIONS This study presents a novel methodology that combines pharmacokinetic and electrophysiological models to incorporate the effects of sex and renal function into in silico drug simulations and highlights their impact on TdP-risk assessment. Furthermore, it may also help inform maximum dose regimens that ensure TdP-related safety in a specific sub-population of patients.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jordi Llopis-Lorente
- Centro de Investigación e Innovación en Bioingeniería (Ci(2)B), Universitat Politècnica de València, camino de Vera, s/n, 46022, Valencia, Spain
| | | | | | - Maria Teresa Mora
- Centro de Investigación e Innovación en Bioingeniería (Ci(2)B), Universitat Politècnica de València, camino de Vera, s/n, 46022, Valencia, Spain
| | | | - Lucía Romero
- Centro de Investigación e Innovación en Bioingeniería (Ci(2)B), Universitat Politècnica de València, camino de Vera, s/n, 46022, Valencia, Spain
| | | | | | - Javier Saiz
- Centro de Investigación e Innovación en Bioingeniería (Ci(2)B), Universitat Politècnica de València, camino de Vera, s/n, 46022, Valencia, Spain
| | - Beatriz Trenor
- Centro de Investigación e Innovación en Bioingeniería (Ci(2)B), Universitat Politècnica de València, camino de Vera, s/n, 46022, Valencia, Spain.
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Shi R, Reichardt M, Fiegle DJ, Küpfer LK, Czajka T, Sun Z, Salditt T, Dendorfer A, Seidel T, Bruegmann T. Contractility measurements for cardiotoxicity screening with ventricular myocardial slices of pigs. Cardiovasc Res 2023; 119:2469-2481. [PMID: 37934066 PMCID: PMC10651213 DOI: 10.1093/cvr/cvad141] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/08/2022] [Revised: 05/22/2023] [Accepted: 07/10/2023] [Indexed: 11/08/2023] Open
Abstract
AIMS Cardiotoxicity is one major reason why drugs do not enter or are withdrawn from the market. Thus, approaches are required to predict cardiotoxicity with high specificity and sensitivity. Ideally, such methods should be performed within intact cardiac tissue with high relevance for humans and detect acute and chronic side effects on electrophysiological behaviour, contractility, and tissue structure in an unbiased manner. Herein, we evaluate healthy pig myocardial slices and biomimetic cultivation setups (BMCS) as a new cardiotoxicity screening approach. METHODS AND RESULTS Pig left ventricular samples were cut into slices and spanned into BMCS with continuous electrical pacing and online force recording. Automated stimulation protocols were established to determine the force-frequency relationship (FFR), frequency dependence of contraction duration, effective refractory period (ERP), and pacing threshold. Slices generated 1.3 ± 0.14 mN/mm2 force at 0.5 Hz electrical pacing and showed a positive FFR and a shortening of contraction duration with increasing pacing rates. Approximately 62% of slices were able to contract for at least 6 days while showing stable ERP, contraction duration-frequency relationship, and preserved cardiac structure confirmed by confocal imaging and X-ray diffraction analysis. We used specific blockers of the most important cardiac ion channels to determine which analysis parameters are influenced. To validate our approach, we tested five drug candidates selected from the Comprehensive in vitro Proarrhythmia Assay list as well as acetylsalicylic acid and DMSO as controls in a blinded manner in three independent laboratories. We were able to detect all arrhythmic drugs and their respective mode of action on cardiac tissue including inhibition of Na+, Ca2+, and hERG channels as well as Na+/Ca2+ exchanger. CONCLUSION We systematically evaluate this approach for cardiotoxicity screening, which is of high relevance for humans and can be upscaled to medium-throughput screening. Thus, our approach will improve the predictive value and efficiency of preclinical cardiotoxicity screening.
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Affiliation(s)
- Runzhu Shi
- Institute for Cardiovascular Physiology, University Medical Center Göttingen, Humboldtallee 23, 37073 Göttingen, Göttingen, Germany
- International Research Training Group 1816, University Medical Center Göttingen, Göttingen, Germany
| | - Marius Reichardt
- Institute for Cardiovascular Physiology, University Medical Center Göttingen, Humboldtallee 23, 37073 Göttingen, Göttingen, Germany
- Institute for X-ray Physics, University of Göttingen, Göttingen, Germany
| | - Dominik J Fiegle
- Institute of Cellular and Molecular Physiology, Friedrich-Alexander-University Erlangen-Nürnberg, Erlangen, Germany
| | - Linda K Küpfer
- Institute of Cellular and Molecular Physiology, Friedrich-Alexander-University Erlangen-Nürnberg, Erlangen, Germany
| | - Titus Czajka
- Institute for X-ray Physics, University of Göttingen, Göttingen, Germany
| | - Zhengwu Sun
- Walter-Brendel-Centre of Experimental Medicine, Hospital of the University Munich, Munich, Germany
| | - Tim Salditt
- Institute for X-ray Physics, University of Göttingen, Göttingen, Germany
- Cluster of Excellence ‘Multiscale Bioimaging: from Molecular Machines to Networks of Excitable Cells’ (MBExC), University of Göttingen, Göttingen, Germany
| | - Andreas Dendorfer
- Walter-Brendel-Centre of Experimental Medicine, Hospital of the University Munich, Munich, Germany
- German Centre of Cardiovascular Research (DZHK), Munich Heart Alliance, Munich, Germany
| | - Thomas Seidel
- Institute of Cellular and Molecular Physiology, Friedrich-Alexander-University Erlangen-Nürnberg, Erlangen, Germany
| | - Tobias Bruegmann
- Institute for Cardiovascular Physiology, University Medical Center Göttingen, Humboldtallee 23, 37073 Göttingen, Göttingen, Germany
- Cluster of Excellence ‘Multiscale Bioimaging: from Molecular Machines to Networks of Excitable Cells’ (MBExC), University of Göttingen, Göttingen, Germany
- German Center for Cardiovascular Research (DZHK), Partner site Göttingen, Göttingen, Germany
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Dokuchaev A, Kursanov A, Balakina-Vikulova NA, Katsnelson LB, Solovyova O. The importance of mechanical conditions in the testing of excitation abnormalities in a population of electro-mechanical models of human ventricular cardiomyocytes. Front Physiol 2023; 14:1187956. [PMID: 37362439 PMCID: PMC10285544 DOI: 10.3389/fphys.2023.1187956] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/16/2023] [Accepted: 05/25/2023] [Indexed: 06/28/2023] Open
Abstract
Background: Populations of in silico electrophysiological models of human cardiomyocytes represent natural variability in cell activity and are thoroughly calibrated and validated using experimental data from the human heart. The models have been shown to predict the effects of drugs and their pro-arrhythmic risks. However, excitation and contraction are known to be tightly coupled in the myocardium, with mechanical loads and stretching affecting both mechanics and excitation through mechanisms of mechano-calcium-electrical feedback. However, these couplings are not currently a focus of populations of cell models. Aim: We investigated the role of cardiomyocyte mechanical activity under different mechanical conditions in the generation, calibration, and validation of a population of electro-mechanical models of human cardiomyocytes. Methods: To generate a population, we assumed 11 input parameters of ionic currents and calcium dynamics in our recently developed TP + M model as varying within a wide range. A History matching algorithm was used to generate a non-implausible parameter space by calibrating the action potential and calcium transient biomarkers against experimental data and rejecting models with excitation abnormalities. The population was further calibrated using experimental data on human myocardial force characteristics and mechanical tests involving variations in preload and afterload. Models that passed the mechanical tests were validated with additional experimental data, including the effects of drugs with high or low pro-arrhythmic risk. Results: More than 10% of the models calibrated on electrophysiological data failed mechanical tests and were rejected from the population due to excitation abnormalities at reduced preload or afterload for cell contraction. The final population of accepted models yielded action potential, calcium transient, and force/shortening outputs consistent with experimental data. In agreement with experimental and clinical data, the models demonstrated a high frequency of excitation abnormalities in simulations of Dofetilide action on the ionic currents, in contrast to Verapamil. However, Verapamil showed a high frequency of failed contractions at high concentrations. Conclusion: Our results highlight the importance of considering mechanoelectric coupling in silico cardiomyocyte models. Mechanical tests allow a more thorough assessment of the effects of interventions on cardiac function, including drug testing.
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Affiliation(s)
- Arsenii Dokuchaev
- Laboratory of Mathematical Physiology, Institute of Immunology and Physiology, Ural Branch of Russian Academy of Sciences, Ekaterinburg, Russia
| | - Alexander Kursanov
- Laboratory of Mathematical Physiology, Institute of Immunology and Physiology, Ural Branch of Russian Academy of Sciences, Ekaterinburg, Russia
- Laboratory of Mathematical Modeling in Physiology and Medicine Based on Supercomputers, Ural Federal University, Ekaterinburg, Russia
| | - Nathalie A. Balakina-Vikulova
- Laboratory of Mathematical Physiology, Institute of Immunology and Physiology, Ural Branch of Russian Academy of Sciences, Ekaterinburg, Russia
- Laboratory of Mathematical Modeling in Physiology and Medicine Based on Supercomputers, Ural Federal University, Ekaterinburg, Russia
| | - Leonid B. Katsnelson
- Laboratory of Mathematical Physiology, Institute of Immunology and Physiology, Ural Branch of Russian Academy of Sciences, Ekaterinburg, Russia
- Laboratory of Mathematical Modeling in Physiology and Medicine Based on Supercomputers, Ural Federal University, Ekaterinburg, Russia
| | - Olga Solovyova
- Laboratory of Mathematical Physiology, Institute of Immunology and Physiology, Ural Branch of Russian Academy of Sciences, Ekaterinburg, Russia
- Laboratory of Mathematical Modeling in Physiology and Medicine Based on Supercomputers, Ural Federal University, Ekaterinburg, Russia
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Soepriatna AH, Navarrete-Welton A, Kim TY, Daley MC, Bronk P, Kofron CM, Mende U, Coulombe KLK, Choi BR. Action potential metrics and automated data analysis pipeline for cardiotoxicity testing using optically mapped hiPSC-derived 3D cardiac microtissues. PLoS One 2023; 18:e0280406. [PMID: 36745602 PMCID: PMC9901774 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0280406] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/07/2022] [Accepted: 12/28/2022] [Indexed: 02/07/2023] Open
Abstract
Recent advances in human induced pluripotent stem cell (hiPSC)-derived cardiac microtissues provide a unique opportunity for cardiotoxic assessment of pharmaceutical and environmental compounds. Here, we developed a series of automated data processing algorithms to assess changes in action potential (AP) properties for cardiotoxicity testing in 3D engineered cardiac microtissues generated from hiPSC-derived cardiomyocytes (hiPSC-CMs). Purified hiPSC-CMs were mixed with 5-25% human cardiac fibroblasts (hCFs) under scaffold-free conditions and allowed to self-assemble into 3D spherical microtissues in 35-microwell agarose gels. Optical mapping was performed to quantify electrophysiological changes. To increase throughput, AP traces from 4x4 cardiac microtissues were simultaneously acquired with a voltage sensitive dye and a CMOS camera. Individual microtissues showing APs were identified using automated thresholding after Fourier transforming traces. An asymmetric least squares method was used to correct non-uniform background and baseline drift, and the fluorescence was normalized (ΔF/F0). Bilateral filtering was applied to preserve the sharpness of the AP upstroke. AP shape changes under selective ion channel block were characterized using AP metrics including stimulation delay, rise time of AP upstroke, APD30, APD50, APD80, APDmxr (maximum rate change of repolarization), and AP triangulation (APDtri = APDmxr-APD50). We also characterized changes in AP metrics under various ion channel block conditions with multi-class logistic regression and feature extraction using principal component analysis of human AP computer simulations. Simulation results were validated experimentally with selective pharmacological ion channel blockers. In conclusion, this simple and robust automated data analysis pipeline for evaluating key AP metrics provides an excellent in vitro cardiotoxicity testing platform for a wide range of environmental and pharmaceutical compounds.
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Affiliation(s)
- Arvin H. Soepriatna
- Center for Biomedical Engineering, School of Engineering, Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island, United States of America
| | - Allison Navarrete-Welton
- Cardiovascular Research Center, Cardiovascular Institute, Rhode Island Hospital and Alpert Medical School of Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island, United States of America
| | - Tae Yun Kim
- Cardiovascular Research Center, Cardiovascular Institute, Rhode Island Hospital and Alpert Medical School of Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island, United States of America
| | - Mark C. Daley
- Center for Biomedical Engineering, School of Engineering, Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island, United States of America
| | - Peter Bronk
- Cardiovascular Research Center, Cardiovascular Institute, Rhode Island Hospital and Alpert Medical School of Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island, United States of America
| | - Celinda M. Kofron
- Center for Biomedical Engineering, School of Engineering, Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island, United States of America
| | - Ulrike Mende
- Cardiovascular Research Center, Cardiovascular Institute, Rhode Island Hospital and Alpert Medical School of Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island, United States of America
| | - Kareen L. K. Coulombe
- Center for Biomedical Engineering, School of Engineering, Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island, United States of America
| | - Bum-Rak Choi
- Cardiovascular Research Center, Cardiovascular Institute, Rhode Island Hospital and Alpert Medical School of Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island, United States of America
- * E-mail:
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Lachaud Q, Aziz MHN, Burton FL, Macquaide N, Myles RC, Simitev RD, Smith GL. Electrophysiological heterogeneity in large populations of rabbit ventricular cardiomyocytes. Cardiovasc Res 2022; 118:3112-3125. [PMID: 35020837 PMCID: PMC9732512 DOI: 10.1093/cvr/cvab375] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/27/2021] [Accepted: 01/07/2022] [Indexed: 01/01/2023] Open
Abstract
AIMS Cardiac electrophysiological heterogeneity includes: (i) regional differences in action potential (AP) waveform, (ii) AP waveform differences in cells isolated from a single region, (iii) variability of the contribution of individual ion currents in cells with similar AP durations (APDs). The aim of this study is to assess intra-regional AP waveform differences, to quantify the contribution of specific ion channels to the APD via drug responses and to generate a population of mathematical models to investigate the mechanisms underlying heterogeneity in rabbit ventricular cells. METHODS AND RESULTS APD in ∼50 isolated cells from subregions of the LV free wall of rabbit hearts were measured using a voltage-sensitive dye. When stimulated at 2 Hz, average APD90 value in cells from the basal epicardial region was 254 ± 25 ms (mean ± standard deviation) in 17 hearts with a mean interquartile range (IQR) of 53 ± 17 ms. Endo-epicardial and apical-basal APD90 differences accounted for ∼10% of the IQR value. Highly variable changes in APD occurred after IK(r) or ICa(L) block that included a sub-population of cells (HR) with an exaggerated (hyper) response to IK(r) inhibition. A set of 4471 AP models matching the experimental APD90 distribution was generated from a larger population of models created by random variation of the maximum conductances (Gmax) of 8 key ion channels/exchangers/pumps. This set reproduced the pattern of cell-specific responses to ICa(L) and IK(r) block, including the HR sub-population. The models exhibited a wide range of Gmax values with constrained relationships linking ICa(L) with IK(r), ICl, INCX, and INaK. CONCLUSION Modelling the measured range of inter-cell APDs required a larger range of key Gmax values indicating that ventricular tissue has considerable inter-cell variation in channel/pump/exchanger activity. AP morphology is retained by relationships linking specific ionic conductances. These interrelationships are necessary for stable repolarization despite large inter-cell variation of individual conductances and this explains the variable sensitivity to ion channel block.
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Affiliation(s)
- Quentin Lachaud
- Institute of Cardiovascular and Medical Sciences, University of Glasgow, Glasgow, UK
| | - Muhamad Hifzhudin Noor Aziz
- School of Mathematics and Statistics, University of Glasgow, Glasgow, UK
- Institute of Mathematical Sciences, Faculty of Science, University of Malaya, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
| | - Francis L Burton
- Institute of Cardiovascular and Medical Sciences, University of Glasgow, Glasgow, UK
| | - Niall Macquaide
- Institute of Cardiovascular and Medical Sciences, University of Glasgow, Glasgow, UK
- School of Health and Life Sciences, Glasgow Caledonian University, Glasgow, UK
| | - Rachel C Myles
- Institute of Cardiovascular and Medical Sciences, University of Glasgow, Glasgow, UK
| | - Radostin D Simitev
- School of Mathematics and Statistics, University of Glasgow, Glasgow, UK
| | - Godfrey L Smith
- Institute of Cardiovascular and Medical Sciences, University of Glasgow, Glasgow, UK
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Llopis-Lorente J, Trenor B, Saiz J. Considering population variability of electrophysiological models improves the in silico assessment of drug-induced torsadogenic risk. Comput Methods Programs Biomed 2022; 221:106934. [PMID: 35687995 DOI: 10.1016/j.cmpb.2022.106934] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/22/2022] [Revised: 05/31/2022] [Accepted: 06/02/2022] [Indexed: 06/15/2023]
Abstract
BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE In silico tools are known to aid in drug cardiotoxicity assessment. However, computational models do not usually consider electrophysiological variability, which may be crucial when predicting rare adverse events such as drug-induced Torsade de Pointes (TdP). In addition, classification tools are usually binary and are not validated using an external data set. Here we analyze the role of incorporating electrophysiological variability in the prediction of drug-induced arrhythmogenic-risk, using a ternary classification and two external validation datasets. METHODS The effects of the 12 training CiPA drugs were simulated at three different concentrations using a single baseline model and an electrophysiologically calibrated population of models. 9 biomarkers related with action potential (AP), calcium dynamics and net charge were measured for each simulated concentration. These biomarkers were used to build ternary classifiers based on Support Vector Machines (SVM) methodology. Classifiers were validated using two external drug sets: the 16 validation CiPA drugs and 81 drugs from CredibleMeds database. RESULTS Population of models allowed to obtain different AP responses under the same pharmacological intervention and improve the prediction of drug-induced TdP with respect to the baseline model. The classification tools based on population of models achieve an accuracy higher than 0.8 and a mean classification error (MCE) lower than 0.3 for both validation drug sets and for the two electrophysiological action potential models studied (Tomek et al. 2020 and a modified version of O'Hara et al. 2011). In addition, simulations with population of models allowed the identification of individuals with lower conductances of IKr, IKs, and INaK and higher conductances of ICaL, INaL, and INCX, which are more prone to develop TdP. CONCLUSIONS The methodology presented here provides new opportunities to assess drug-induced TdP-risk, taking into account electrophysiological variability and may be helpful to improve current cardiac safety screening methods.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jordi Llopis-Lorente
- Centro de Investigación e Innovación en Bioingeniería (Ci(2)B), Universitat Politècnica de València, camino de Vera, s/n, Valencia 46022, Spain
| | - Beatriz Trenor
- Centro de Investigación e Innovación en Bioingeniería (Ci(2)B), Universitat Politècnica de València, camino de Vera, s/n, Valencia 46022, Spain
| | - Javier Saiz
- Centro de Investigación e Innovación en Bioingeniería (Ci(2)B), Universitat Politècnica de València, camino de Vera, s/n, Valencia 46022, Spain.
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Mohr M, Chambard J, Ballet V, Schmidt F. Accurate in silico simulation of the rabbit Purkinje fiber electrophysiological assay to facilitate early pharmaceutical cardiosafety assessment: Dream or reality? J Pharmacol Toxicol Methods 2022. [DOI: 10.1016/j.vascn.2022.107172] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/07/2021] [Revised: 03/31/2022] [Accepted: 04/08/2022] [Indexed: 11/24/2022]
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Sutanto H, Heijman J. Integrative Computational Modeling of Cardiomyocyte Calcium Handling and Cardiac Arrhythmias: Current Status and Future Challenges. Cells 2022; 11:1090. [PMID: 35406654 PMCID: PMC8997666 DOI: 10.3390/cells11071090] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/03/2022] [Revised: 03/22/2022] [Accepted: 03/22/2022] [Indexed: 12/26/2022] Open
Abstract
Cardiomyocyte calcium-handling is the key mediator of cardiac excitation-contraction coupling. In the healthy heart, calcium controls both electrical impulse propagation and myofilament cross-bridge cycling, providing synchronous and adequate contraction of cardiac muscles. However, calcium-handling abnormalities are increasingly implicated as a cause of cardiac arrhythmias. Due to the complex, dynamic and localized interactions between calcium and other molecules within a cardiomyocyte, it remains experimentally challenging to study the exact contributions of calcium-handling abnormalities to arrhythmogenesis. Therefore, multiscale computational modeling is increasingly being used together with laboratory experiments to unravel the exact mechanisms of calcium-mediated arrhythmogenesis. This article describes various examples of how integrative computational modeling makes it possible to unravel the arrhythmogenic consequences of alterations to cardiac calcium handling at subcellular, cellular and tissue levels, and discusses the future challenges on the integration and interpretation of such computational data.
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Ton AT, Nguyen W, Sweat K, Miron Y, Hernandez E, Wong T, Geft V, Macias A, Espinoza A, Truong K, Rasoul L, Stafford A, Cotta T, Mai C, Indersmitten T, Page G, Miller PE, Ghetti A, Abi-Gerges N. Arrhythmogenic and antiarrhythmic actions of late sustained sodium current in the adult human heart. Sci Rep 2021; 11:12014. [PMID: 34103608 PMCID: PMC8187365 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-021-91528-1] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/22/2021] [Accepted: 05/27/2021] [Indexed: 12/19/2022] Open
Abstract
Late sodium current (late INa) inhibition has been proposed to suppress the incidence of arrhythmias generated by pathological states or induced by drugs. However, the role of late INa in the human heart is still poorly understood. We therefore investigated the role of this conductance in arrhythmias using adult primary cardiomyocytes and tissues from donor hearts. Potentiation of late INa with ATX-II (anemonia sulcata toxin II) and E-4031 (selective blocker of the hERG channel) slowed the kinetics of action potential repolarization, impaired Ca2+ homeostasis, increased contractility, and increased the manifestation of arrhythmia markers. These effects could be reversed by late INa inhibitors, ranolazine and GS-967. We also report that atrial tissues from donor hearts affected by atrial fibrillation exhibit arrhythmia markers in the absence of drug treatment and inhibition of late INa with GS-967 leads to a significant reduction in arrhythmic behaviour. These findings reveal a critical role for the late INa in cardiac arrhythmias and suggest that inhibition of this conductance could provide an effective therapeutic strategy. Finally, this study highlights the utility of human ex-vivo heart models for advancing cardiac translational sciences.
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Affiliation(s)
- Anh Tuan Ton
- AnaBios Corporation, 3030 Bunker Hill St., Suite 312, San Diego, CA, 92109, USA
| | - William Nguyen
- AnaBios Corporation, 3030 Bunker Hill St., Suite 312, San Diego, CA, 92109, USA
| | - Katrina Sweat
- AnaBios Corporation, 3030 Bunker Hill St., Suite 312, San Diego, CA, 92109, USA
| | - Yannick Miron
- AnaBios Corporation, 3030 Bunker Hill St., Suite 312, San Diego, CA, 92109, USA
| | - Eduardo Hernandez
- AnaBios Corporation, 3030 Bunker Hill St., Suite 312, San Diego, CA, 92109, USA
| | - Tiara Wong
- AnaBios Corporation, 3030 Bunker Hill St., Suite 312, San Diego, CA, 92109, USA
| | - Valentyna Geft
- AnaBios Corporation, 3030 Bunker Hill St., Suite 312, San Diego, CA, 92109, USA
| | - Andrew Macias
- AnaBios Corporation, 3030 Bunker Hill St., Suite 312, San Diego, CA, 92109, USA
| | - Ana Espinoza
- AnaBios Corporation, 3030 Bunker Hill St., Suite 312, San Diego, CA, 92109, USA
| | - Ky Truong
- AnaBios Corporation, 3030 Bunker Hill St., Suite 312, San Diego, CA, 92109, USA
| | - Lana Rasoul
- AnaBios Corporation, 3030 Bunker Hill St., Suite 312, San Diego, CA, 92109, USA
| | - Alexa Stafford
- AnaBios Corporation, 3030 Bunker Hill St., Suite 312, San Diego, CA, 92109, USA
| | - Tamara Cotta
- AnaBios Corporation, 3030 Bunker Hill St., Suite 312, San Diego, CA, 92109, USA
| | - Christina Mai
- AnaBios Corporation, 3030 Bunker Hill St., Suite 312, San Diego, CA, 92109, USA
| | - Tim Indersmitten
- AnaBios Corporation, 3030 Bunker Hill St., Suite 312, San Diego, CA, 92109, USA
| | - Guy Page
- AnaBios Corporation, 3030 Bunker Hill St., Suite 312, San Diego, CA, 92109, USA
| | - Paul E Miller
- AnaBios Corporation, 3030 Bunker Hill St., Suite 312, San Diego, CA, 92109, USA
| | - Andre Ghetti
- AnaBios Corporation, 3030 Bunker Hill St., Suite 312, San Diego, CA, 92109, USA
| | - Najah Abi-Gerges
- AnaBios Corporation, 3030 Bunker Hill St., Suite 312, San Diego, CA, 92109, USA.
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11
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DeMarco KR, Yang PC, Singh V, Furutani K, Dawson JRD, Jeng MT, Fettinger JC, Bekker S, Ngo VA, Noskov SY, Yarov-Yarovoy V, Sack JT, Wulff H, Clancy CE, Vorobyov I. Molecular determinants of pro-arrhythmia proclivity of d- and l-sotalol via a multi-scale modeling pipeline. J Mol Cell Cardiol 2021; 158:163-177. [PMID: 34062207 PMCID: PMC8906354 DOI: 10.1016/j.yjmcc.2021.05.015] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/17/2020] [Revised: 05/03/2021] [Accepted: 05/24/2021] [Indexed: 11/20/2022]
Abstract
Drug isomers may differ in their proarrhythmia risk. An interesting example is the drug sotalol, an antiarrhythmic drug comprising d- and l- enantiomers that both block the hERG cardiac potassium channel and confer differing degrees of proarrhythmic risk. We developed a multi-scale in silico pipeline focusing on hERG channel – drug interactions and used it to probe and predict the mechanisms of pro-arrhythmia risks of the two enantiomers of sotalol. Molecular dynamics (MD) simulations predicted comparable hERG channel binding affinities for d- and l-sotalol, which were validated with electrophysiology experiments. MD derived thermodynamic and kinetic parameters were used to build multi-scale functional computational models of cardiac electrophysiology at the cell and tissue scales. Functional models were used to predict inactivated state binding affinities to recapitulate electrocardiogram (ECG) QT interval prolongation observed in clinical data. Our study demonstrates how modeling and simulation can be applied to predict drug effects from the atom to the rhythm for dl-sotalol and also increased proarrhythmia proclivity of d- vs. l-sotalol when accounting for stereospecific beta-adrenergic receptor blocking.
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Affiliation(s)
- Kevin R DeMarco
- Department of Physiology and Membrane Biology, University of California Davis, Davis, CA 95616, USA
| | - Pei-Chi Yang
- Department of Physiology and Membrane Biology, University of California Davis, Davis, CA 95616, USA
| | - Vikrant Singh
- Department of Pharmacology, University of California Davis, Davis, CA 95616, USA
| | - Kazuharu Furutani
- Department of Physiology and Membrane Biology, University of California Davis, Davis, CA 95616, USA; Department of Pharmacology, Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Tokushima Bunri University, Tokushima, Tokushima 770-8514, Japan
| | - John R D Dawson
- Department of Physiology and Membrane Biology, University of California Davis, Davis, CA 95616, USA; Biophysics Graduate Group, University of California Davis, Davis, CA 95616, USA
| | - Mao-Tsuen Jeng
- Department of Physiology and Membrane Biology, University of California Davis, Davis, CA 95616, USA
| | - James C Fettinger
- Department of Chemistry, University of California Davis, Davis, CA 95616, USA
| | - Slava Bekker
- Department of Physiology and Membrane Biology, University of California Davis, Davis, CA 95616, USA; Department of Science and Engineering, American River College, Sacramento, CA 95841, USA
| | - Van A Ngo
- Centre for Molecular Simulation and Biochemistry Research Cluster, Department of Biological Sciences, University of Calgary, Calgary, AB T2N1N4, Canada
| | - Sergei Y Noskov
- Centre for Molecular Simulation and Biochemistry Research Cluster, Department of Biological Sciences, University of Calgary, Calgary, AB T2N1N4, Canada
| | - Vladimir Yarov-Yarovoy
- Department of Physiology and Membrane Biology, University of California Davis, Davis, CA 95616, USA; Department of Anesthesiology and Pain Medicine, University of California Davis, Davis, CA 95616, USA
| | - Jon T Sack
- Department of Physiology and Membrane Biology, University of California Davis, Davis, CA 95616, USA; Department of Anesthesiology and Pain Medicine, University of California Davis, Davis, CA 95616, USA
| | - Heike Wulff
- Department of Pharmacology, University of California Davis, Davis, CA 95616, USA
| | - Colleen E Clancy
- Department of Physiology and Membrane Biology, University of California Davis, Davis, CA 95616, USA; Department of Pharmacology, University of California Davis, Davis, CA 95616, USA
| | - Igor Vorobyov
- Department of Physiology and Membrane Biology, University of California Davis, Davis, CA 95616, USA; Department of Pharmacology, University of California Davis, Davis, CA 95616, USA.
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12
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Jordaan P, Dumotier B, Traebert M, Miller PE, Ghetti A, Urban L, Abi-Gerges N. Cardiotoxic Potential of Hydroxychloroquine, Chloroquine and Azithromycin in Adult Human Primary Cardiomyocytes. Toxicol Sci 2021; 180:356-368. [PMID: 33483756 PMCID: PMC7928616 DOI: 10.1093/toxsci/kfaa194] [Citation(s) in RCA: 12] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/17/2022] Open
Abstract
Substantial efforts have been recently committed to develop coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19) medications, and Hydroxychloroquine alone or in combination with Azithromycin has been promoted as a repurposed treatment. Although these drugs may increase cardiac toxicity risk, cardiomyocyte mechanisms underlying this risk remain poorly understood in humans. Therefore, we evaluated the proarrhythmia risk and inotropic effects of these drugs in the cardiomyocyte contractility-based model of the human heart. We found Hydroxychloroquine to have a low proarrhythmia risk, whereas Chloroquine and Azithromycin were associated with high risk. Hydroxychloroquine proarrhythmia risk changed to high with low level of K+, whereas high level of Mg2+ protected against proarrhythmic effect of high Hydroxychloroquine concentrations. Moreover, therapeutic concentration of Hydroxychloroquine caused no enhancement of elevated temperature-induced proarrhythmia. Polytherapy of Hydroxychloroquine plus Azithromycin and sequential application of these drugs were also found to influence proarrhythmia risk categorization. Hydroxychloroquine proarrhythmia risk changed to high when combined with Azithromycin at therapeutic concentration. However, Hydroxychloroquine at therapeutic concentration impacted the cardiac safety profile of Azithromycin and its proarrhythmia risk only at concentrations above therapeutic level. We also report that Hydroxychloroquine and Chloroquine, but not Azithromycin, decreased contractility while exhibiting multi-ion channel block features, and Hydroxychloroquine's contractility effect was abolished by Azithromycin. Thus, this study has the potential to inform clinical studies evaluating repurposed therapies, including those in the COVID-19 context. Additionally, it demonstrates the translational value of the human cardiomyocyte contractility-based model as a key early discovery path to inform decisions on novel therapies for COVID-19, malaria, and inflammatory diseases.
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Affiliation(s)
- Pierre Jordaan
- Chief Medical Officer and Patient Safety, Novartis AG, Basel, Switzerland
| | - Bérengère Dumotier
- Novartis Institutes for Biomedical Research, Preclinical Safety, Basel, Switzerland
| | - Martin Traebert
- Novartis Institutes for Biomedical Research, Preclinical Safety, Basel, Switzerland
| | - Paul E Miller
- AnaBios Corporation, San Diego, California 92109, USA
| | - Andre Ghetti
- AnaBios Corporation, San Diego, California 92109, USA
| | - Laszlo Urban
- Novartis Institutes for Biomedical Research, Preclinical Secondary Pharmacology, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA
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13
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Knight WE, Ali HR, Nakano SJ, Wilson CE, Walker LA, Woulfe KC. Ex vivo Methods for Measuring Cardiac Muscle Mechanical Properties. Front Physiol 2021; 11:616996. [PMID: 33488406 PMCID: PMC7820907 DOI: 10.3389/fphys.2020.616996] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/13/2020] [Accepted: 12/10/2020] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Abstract
Cardiovascular disease continues to be the leading cause of morbidity and mortality in the United States and thousands of manuscripts each year are aimed at elucidating mechanisms underlying cardiac disease. The methods for quantifying cardiac performance are quite varied, with each technique assessing unique features of cardiac muscle mechanical properties. Accordingly, in this review, we discuss current ex vivo methods for quantifying cardiac muscle performance, highlighting what can be learned from each method, and how each technique can be used in conjunction to complement others for a more comprehensive understanding of cardiac function. Importantly, cardiac function can be assessed at several different levels, from the whole organ down to individual protein-protein interactions. Here, we take a reductionist view of methods that are commonly used to measure the distinct aspects of cardiac mechanical function, beginning with whole heart preparations and finishing with the in vitro motility assay. While each of the techniques are individually well-documented in the literature, there is a significant need for a comparison of the techniques, delineating the mechanical parameters that can are best measured with each technique, as well as the strengths and weaknesses inherent to each method. Additionally, we will consider complementary techniques and how these methods can be used in combination to improve our understanding of cardiac mechanical function. By presenting each of these methods, with their strengths and limitations, in a single manuscript, this review will assist cardiovascular biologists in understanding the existing literature on cardiac mechanical function, as well as designing future experiments.
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Affiliation(s)
- Walter E Knight
- Department of Medicine, Division of Cardiology, University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus, Aurora, CO, United States
| | - Hadi R Ali
- Department of Medicine, Division of Cardiology, University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus, Aurora, CO, United States
| | - Stephanie J Nakano
- Department of Pediatrics, Division of Cardiology, Children's Hospital, University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus, Aurora, CO, United States
| | - Cortney E Wilson
- Department of Medicine, Division of Cardiology, University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus, Aurora, CO, United States
| | - Lori A Walker
- Department of Medicine, Division of Cardiology, University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus, Aurora, CO, United States
| | - Kathleen C Woulfe
- Department of Medicine, Division of Cardiology, University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus, Aurora, CO, United States
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14
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Llopis-Lorente J, Gomis-Tena J, Cano J, Romero L, Saiz J, Trenor B. In Silico Classifiers for the Assessment of Drug Proarrhythmicity. J Chem Inf Model 2020; 60:5172-5187. [PMID: 32786710 DOI: 10.1021/acs.jcim.0c00201] [Citation(s) in RCA: 15] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/13/2022]
Abstract
Drug-induced torsade de pointes (TdP) is a life-threatening ventricular arrhythmia responsible for the withdrawal of many drugs from the market. Although currently used TdP risk-assessment methods are effective, they are expensive and prone to produce false positives. In recent years, in silico cardiac simulations have proven to be a valuable tool for the prediction of drug effects. The objective of this work is to evaluate different biomarkers of drug-induced proarrhythmic risk and to develop an in silico risk classifier. Cellular simulations were performed using a modified version of the O'Hara et al. ventricular action potential model and existing pharmacological data (IC50 and effective free therapeutic plasma concentration, EFTPC) for 109 drugs of known torsadogenic risk (51 positive). For each compound, four biomarkers were tested: Tx (drug concentration leading to a 10% prolongation of the action potential over the EFTPC), TqNet (net charge carried by ionic currents when exposed to 10 times the EFTPC with respect to the net charge in control), Ttriang (triangulation for a drug concentration of 10 times the EFTPC over triangulation in control), and TEAD (drug concentration originating early afterdepolarizations over EFTPC). Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves were built for each biomarker to evaluate their individual predictive quality. At the optimal cutoff point, accuracies for Tx, TqNet, Ttriang, and TEAD were 89.9, 91.7, 90.8, and 78.9% respectively. The resulting accuracy of the hERG IC50 test (current biomarker) was 78.9%. When combining Tx, TqNet and Ttriang into a classifier based on decision trees, the prediction improves, achieving an accuracy of 94.5%. The sensitivity analysis revealed that most of the effects on the action potential are mainly due to changes in IKr, ICaL, INaL and IKs. In fact, considering that drugs affect only these four currents, TdP risk classification can be as accurate as when considering effects on the seven main currents proposed by the CiPA initiative. Finally, we built a ready-to-use tool (based on more than 450 000 simulations), which can be used to quickly assess the proarrhythmic risk of a compound. In conclusion, our in silico tool can be useful for the preclinical assessment of TdP-risk and to reduce costs related with new drug development. The TdP risk-assessment tool and the software used in this work are available at https://riunet.upv.es/handle/10251/136919.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jordi Llopis-Lorente
- Centro de Investigación e Innovación en Bioingeniería (Ci2B), Universitat Politècnica de València, Camino de Vera s/n, 46022 Valencia, Spain
| | - Julio Gomis-Tena
- Centro de Investigación e Innovación en Bioingeniería (Ci2B), Universitat Politècnica de València, Camino de Vera s/n, 46022 Valencia, Spain
| | - Jordi Cano
- Centro de Investigación e Innovación en Bioingeniería (Ci2B), Universitat Politècnica de València, Camino de Vera s/n, 46022 Valencia, Spain
| | - Lucía Romero
- Centro de Investigación e Innovación en Bioingeniería (Ci2B), Universitat Politècnica de València, Camino de Vera s/n, 46022 Valencia, Spain
| | - Javier Saiz
- Centro de Investigación e Innovación en Bioingeniería (Ci2B), Universitat Politècnica de València, Camino de Vera s/n, 46022 Valencia, Spain
| | - Beatriz Trenor
- Centro de Investigación e Innovación en Bioingeniería (Ci2B), Universitat Politècnica de València, Camino de Vera s/n, 46022 Valencia, Spain
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15
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Sutanto H, Heijman J. Beta-Adrenergic Receptor Stimulation Modulates the Cellular Proarrhythmic Effects of Chloroquine and Azithromycin. Front Physiol 2020; 11:587709. [PMID: 33192602 PMCID: PMC7642988 DOI: 10.3389/fphys.2020.587709] [Citation(s) in RCA: 13] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/27/2020] [Accepted: 09/29/2020] [Indexed: 12/11/2022] Open
Abstract
The antimalarial drug, chloroquine (CQ), and antimicrobial drug, azithromycin (AZM), have received significant attention during the COVID-19 pandemic. Both drugs can alter cardiac electrophysiology and have been associated with drug-induced arrhythmias. Meanwhile, sympathetic activation is commonly observed during systemic inflammation and oxidative stress (e.g., in SARS-CoV-2 infection) and may influence the electrophysiological effects of CQ and AZM. Here, we investigated the effect of beta-adrenergic stimulation on proarrhythmic properties of CQ and AZM using detailed in silico models of ventricular electrophysiology. Concentration-dependent alterations in ion-channel function were incorporated into the Heijman canine and O’Hara-Rudy human ventricular cardiomyocyte models. Single and combined drug effects on action-potential (AP) properties were analyzed using a population of 1,000 models accommodating inter-individual variability. Sympathetic stimulation was simulated by increasing pacing rate and experimentally validated isoproterenol (ISO)-induced changes in ion-channel function. In the canine ventricular model at 1 Hz pacing, therapeutic doses of CQ and AZM (5 and 20 μM, respectively) individually prolonged AP duration (APD) by 33 and 13%. Their combination produced synergistic APD prolongation (+161%) with incidence of proarrhythmic early afterdepolarizations in 53.5% of models. Increasing the pacing frequency to 2 Hz shortened APD and together with 1 μM ISO counteracted the drug-induced APD prolongation. No afterdepolarizations occurred following increased rate and simulated application of ISO. Similarly, CQ and AZM individually prolonged APD by 43 and 29% in the human ventricular cardiomyocyte model, while their combination prolonged APD by 76% without causing early afterdepolarizations. Consistently, 1 μM ISO at 2 Hz pacing counteracted the drug-induced APD prolongation. Increasing the ICa,L window current produced afterdepolarizations, which were exacerbated by ISO. In both models, reduced extracellular K+ reduced the repolarization reserve and increased drug effects. In conclusion, CQ- and AZM-induced proarrhythmia is promoted by conditions with reduced repolarization reserve. Sympathetic stimulation limits drug-induced APD prolongation, suggesting the potential importance of heart rate and autonomic status monitoring in particular conditions (e.g., COVID-19).
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Affiliation(s)
- Henry Sutanto
- Department of Cardiology, Cardiovascular Research Institute Maastricht (CARIM) School for Cardiovascular Diseases, Maastricht University, Maastricht, Netherlands
| | - Jordi Heijman
- Department of Cardiology, Cardiovascular Research Institute Maastricht (CARIM) School for Cardiovascular Diseases, Maastricht University, Maastricht, Netherlands
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16
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Bystricky W, Maier C, Gintant G, Bergau D, Carter D. Identification of Drug-Induced Multichannel Block and Proarrhythmic Risk in Humans Using Continuous T Vector Velocity Effect Profiles Derived From Surface Electrocardiograms. Front Physiol 2020; 11:567383. [PMID: 33071822 PMCID: PMC7530300 DOI: 10.3389/fphys.2020.567383] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/29/2020] [Accepted: 08/27/2020] [Indexed: 01/07/2023] Open
Abstract
We present continuous T vector velocity (TVV) effect profiles as a new method for identifying drug effects on cardiac ventricular repolarization. TVV measures the temporal change in the myocardial action potential distribution during repolarization. The T vector dynamics were measured as the time required to reach p percent of the total T vector trajectory length, denoted as Tr(p), with p in {1, …, 100%}. The Tr(p) values were individually corrected for heart rate at each trajectory length percentage p. Drug effects were measured by evaluating the placebo corrected changes from baseline of Tr(p)c jointly for all p using functional mixed effects models. The p-dependent model parameters were implemented as cubic splines, providing continuous drug effect profiles along the entire ventricular repolarization process. The effect profile distributions were approximated by bootstrap simulations. We applied this TVV-based analysis approach to ECGs available from three published studies that were conducted in the CiPA context. These studies assessed the effect of 10 drugs and drug combinations with different ion channel blocking properties on myocardial repolarization in a total of 104 healthy volunteers. TVV analysis revealed that blockade of outward potassium currents alone presents an effect profile signature of continuous accumulation of delay throughout the entire repolarization interval. In contrast, block of inward sodium or calcium currents involves acceleration, which accumulates during early repolarization. The balance of blocking inward versus outward currents was reflected in the percentage pzero of the T vector trajectory length where accelerated repolarization transitioned to delayed repolarization. Binary classification using a threshold pzero = 43% separated predominant hERG channel blocking drugs with potentially higher proarrhythmic risk (moxifloxacin, dofetilide, quinidine, chloroquine) from multichannel blocking drugs with low proarrhythmic risk (ranolazine, verapamil, lopinavir/ritonavir) with sensitivity 0.99 and specificity 0.97. The TVV-based effect profile provides a detailed view of drug effects throughout the entire ventricular repolarization interval. It enables the evaluation of drug-induced blocks of multiple cardiac repolarization currents from clinical ECGs. The proposed pzero parameter enhances identification of the proarrhythmic risk of a drug beyond QT prolongation, and therefore constitutes an important tool for cardiac arrhythmia risk assessment.
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Affiliation(s)
- Werner Bystricky
- Clinical Pharmacology and Pharmacometrics, AbbVie, Inc., North Chicago, IL, United States
| | - Christoph Maier
- Clinical Pharmacology and Pharmacometrics, AbbVie, Inc., North Chicago, IL, United States.,Department of Medical Informatics, Heilbronn University, Heilbronn, Germany
| | - Gary Gintant
- Integrated Sciences and Technology, AbbVie, Inc., North Chicago, IL, United States
| | - Dennis Bergau
- Clinical Pharmacology and Pharmacometrics, AbbVie, Inc., North Chicago, IL, United States
| | - David Carter
- Clinical Pharmacology and Pharmacometrics, AbbVie, Inc., North Chicago, IL, United States
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17
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Vormfelde SV, Pezous N, Lefèvre G, Kolly C, Neumann U, Jordaan P, Ufer M, Legangneux E. A Pooled Analysis of Three Randomized Phase I/IIa Clinical Trials Confirms Absence of a Clinically Relevant Effect on the QTc Interval by Umibecestat. Clin Transl Sci 2020; 13:1316-1326. [PMID: 32583957 PMCID: PMC7719381 DOI: 10.1111/cts.12832] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/25/2020] [Accepted: 05/01/2020] [Indexed: 01/17/2023] Open
Abstract
Umibecestat, an orally active β‐secretase inhibitor, reduces the production of amyloid beta‐peptide that accumulates in the brain of patients with Alzheimer’s disease. The echocardiogram effects of umibecestat, on QTcF (Fridericia‐corrected QT), on PR and QRS and heart rate (HR), were estimated by concentration‐effect modeling. Three phase I/II studies with durations up to 3 months, with 372 healthy subjects over a wide age range, including both sexes and 2 ethnicities, were pooled, providing a large data set with good statistical power. No clinically relevant effect on QTcF, PR interval, QRS duration, or HR were observed up to supratherapeutic doses. The upper bound of 90% confidence intervals of the ∆QTcF was below the 10 ms threshold of regulatory concern for all concentrations measured. Prespecified sensitivity analysis confirmed the results in both sexes, in those over and below 60 years, and in Japanese subjects. All conclusions were endorsed by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
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Affiliation(s)
- Stefan Viktor Vormfelde
- Department of Translational Medicine, Novartis Institutes for BioMedical Research, Basel, Switzerland
| | - Nicole Pezous
- Department of Translational Medicine, Novartis Institutes for BioMedical Research, Basel, Switzerland
| | - Gilbert Lefèvre
- Department of Translational Medicine, Novartis Institutes for BioMedical Research, Basel, Switzerland
| | - Carine Kolly
- Department of Preclinical Safety, Novartis Institutes for BioMedical Research, Basel, Switzerland
| | - Ulf Neumann
- Department of Neuroscience, Novartis Institutes for BioMedical Research, Basel, Switzerland
| | - Pierre Jordaan
- Cardiovascular Safety Expert - CMO and Patient Safety - Oncology, Novartis Pharma, Basel, Switzerland
| | - Mike Ufer
- Department of Translational Medicine, Novartis Institutes for BioMedical Research, Basel, Switzerland
| | - Eric Legangneux
- Department of Translational Medicine, Novartis Institutes for BioMedical Research, Basel, Switzerland
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18
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Sutanto H, Cluitmans MJM, Dobrev D, Volders PGA, Bébarová M, Heijman J. Acute effects of alcohol on cardiac electrophysiology and arrhythmogenesis: Insights from multiscale in silico analyses. J Mol Cell Cardiol 2020; 146:69-83. [PMID: 32710981 DOI: 10.1016/j.yjmcc.2020.07.007] [Citation(s) in RCA: 27] [Impact Index Per Article: 6.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/01/2020] [Revised: 06/27/2020] [Accepted: 07/16/2020] [Indexed: 12/11/2022]
Abstract
Acute excessive ethyl alcohol (ethanol) consumption alters cardiac electrophysiology and can evoke cardiac arrhythmias, e.g., in 'holiday heart syndrome'. Ethanol acutely modulates numerous targets in cardiomyocytes, including ion channels, Ca2+-handling proteins and gap junctions. However, the mechanisms underlying ethanol-induced arrhythmogenesis remain incompletely understood and difficult to study experimentally due to the multiple electrophysiological targets involved and their potential interactions with preexisting electrophysiological or structural substrates. Here, we employed cellular- and tissue-level in-silico analyses to characterize the acute effects of ethanol on cardiac electrophysiology and arrhythmogenesis. Acute electrophysiological effects of ethanol were incorporated into human atrial and ventricular cardiomyocyte computer models: reduced INa, ICa,L, Ito, IKr and IKur, dual effects on IK1 and IK,ACh (inhibition at low and augmentation at high concentrations), and increased INCX and SR Ca2+ leak. Multiscale simulations in the absence or presence of preexistent atrial fibrillation or heart-failure-related remodeling demonstrated that low ethanol concentrations prolonged atrial action-potential duration (APD) without effects on ventricular APD. Conversely, high ethanol concentrations abbreviated atrial APD and prolonged ventricular APD. High ethanol concentrations promoted reentry in tissue simulations, but the extent of reentry promotion was dependent on the presence of altered intercellular coupling, and the degree, type, and pattern of fibrosis. Taken together, these data provide novel mechanistic insight into the potential proarrhythmic interactions between a preexisting substrate and acute changes in cardiac electrophysiology. In particular, acute ethanol exposure has concentration-dependent electrophysiological effects that differ between atria and ventricles, and between healthy and diseased hearts. Low concentrations of ethanol can have anti-fibrillatory effects in atria, whereas high concentrations promote the inducibility and maintenance of reentrant atrial and ventricular arrhythmias, supporting a role for limiting alcohol intake as part of cardiac arrhythmia management.
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Affiliation(s)
- Henry Sutanto
- Department of Cardiology, CARIM School for Cardiovascular Diseases, Maastricht University, the Netherlands
| | - Matthijs J M Cluitmans
- Department of Cardiology, CARIM School for Cardiovascular Diseases, Maastricht University, the Netherlands
| | - Dobromir Dobrev
- Institute of Pharmacology, West German Heart and Vascular Center, University Duisburg-Essen, Essen, Germany
| | - Paul G A Volders
- Department of Cardiology, CARIM School for Cardiovascular Diseases, Maastricht University, the Netherlands
| | - Markéta Bébarová
- Department of Physiology, Faculty of Medicine, Masaryk University, Brno, Czech Republic
| | - Jordi Heijman
- Department of Cardiology, CARIM School for Cardiovascular Diseases, Maastricht University, the Netherlands.
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19
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Margara F, Wang ZJ, Levrero-Florencio F, Santiago A, Vázquez M, Bueno-Orovio A, Rodriguez B. In-silico human electro-mechanical ventricular modelling and simulation for drug-induced pro-arrhythmia and inotropic risk assessment. Prog Biophys Mol Biol 2021; 159:58-74. [PMID: 32710902 DOI: 10.1016/j.pbiomolbio.2020.06.007] [Citation(s) in RCA: 39] [Impact Index Per Article: 9.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/17/2020] [Revised: 06/08/2020] [Accepted: 06/28/2020] [Indexed: 12/28/2022]
Abstract
Human-based computational modelling and simulation are powerful tools to accelerate the mechanistic understanding of cardiac patho-physiology, and to develop and evaluate therapeutic interventions. The aim of this study is to calibrate and evaluate human ventricular electro-mechanical models for investigations on the effect of the electro-mechanical coupling and pharmacological action on human ventricular electrophysiology, calcium dynamics, and active contraction. The most recent models of human ventricular electrophysiology, excitation-contraction coupling, and active contraction were integrated, and the coupled models were calibrated using human experimental data. Simulations were then conducted using the coupled models to quantify the effects of electro-mechanical coupling and drug exposure on electrophysiology and force generation in virtual human ventricular cardiomyocytes and tissue. The resulting calibrated human electro-mechanical models yielded active tension, action potential, and calcium transient metrics that are in agreement with experiments for endocardial, epicardial, and mid-myocardial human samples. Simulation results correctly predicted the inotropic response of different multichannel action reference compounds and demonstrated that the electro-mechanical coupling improves the robustness of repolarisation under drug exposure compared to electrophysiology-only models. They also generated additional evidence to explain the partial mismatch between in-silico and in-vitro experiments on drug-induced electrophysiology changes. The human calibrated and evaluated modelling and simulation framework constructed in this study opens new avenues for future investigations into the complex interplay between the electrical and mechanical cardiac substrates, its modulation by pharmacological action, and its translation to tissue and organ models of cardiac patho-physiology.
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20
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Whittaker DG, Clerx M, Lei CL, Christini DJ, Mirams GR. Calibration of ionic and cellular cardiac electrophysiology models. Wiley Interdiscip Rev Syst Biol Med 2020; 12:e1482. [PMID: 32084308 PMCID: PMC8614115 DOI: 10.1002/wsbm.1482] [Citation(s) in RCA: 41] [Impact Index Per Article: 10.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/30/2019] [Revised: 01/17/2020] [Accepted: 01/18/2020] [Indexed: 12/30/2022]
Abstract
Cardiac electrophysiology models are among the most mature and well-studied mathematical models of biological systems. This maturity is bringing new challenges as models are being used increasingly to make quantitative rather than qualitative predictions. As such, calibrating the parameters within ion current and action potential (AP) models to experimental data sets is a crucial step in constructing a predictive model. This review highlights some of the fundamental concepts in cardiac model calibration and is intended to be readily understood by computational and mathematical modelers working in other fields of biology. We discuss the classic and latest approaches to calibration in the electrophysiology field, at both the ion channel and cellular AP scales. We end with a discussion of the many challenges that work to date has raised and the need for reproducible descriptions of the calibration process to enable models to be recalibrated to new data sets and built upon for new studies. This article is categorized under: Analytical and Computational Methods > Computational Methods Physiology > Mammalian Physiology in Health and Disease Models of Systems Properties and Processes > Cellular Models.
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Affiliation(s)
- Dominic G. Whittaker
- Centre for Mathematical Medicine & Biology, School of Mathematical SciencesUniversity of NottinghamNottinghamUK
| | - Michael Clerx
- Computational Biology & Health Informatics, Department of Computer ScienceUniversity of OxfordOxfordUK
| | - Chon Lok Lei
- Computational Biology & Health Informatics, Department of Computer ScienceUniversity of OxfordOxfordUK
| | | | - Gary R. Mirams
- Centre for Mathematical Medicine & Biology, School of Mathematical SciencesUniversity of NottinghamNottinghamUK
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21
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Abstract
Safety evaluation of drugs requires examination of the risk of generating Torsade de Pointes (TdP) because it can lead to sudden cardiac death. Until recently, the QT interval in the electrocardiogram (ECG) has been used in the evaluation of TdP risk because the QT interval is known to be associated with the development of TdP. Although TdP risk evaluation based on QT interval has been successful in removing drugs with TdP risk from the market, some safe drugs may have also been affected due to the low specificity of QT interval-based evaluation. For more accurate evaluation of drug safety, the comprehensive in vitro proarrhythmia assay (CiPA) has been proposed by regulatory agencies, industry, and academia. Although the CiPA initiative includes in silico evaluation of cellular action potential as a component, attempts to utilize in silico simulation in drug safety evaluation are expanding, even to simulating human ECG using biophysical three-dimensional models of the heart and torso under the effects of drugs. Here, we review recent developments in the use of in silico models for the evaluation of the proarrhythmic risk of drugs. We review the single cell, one-dimensional, two-dimensional, and three-dimensional models and their applications reported in the literature and discuss the possibility of utilizing ECG simulation in drug safety evaluation.
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Affiliation(s)
- Minki Hwang
- SiliconSapiens Inc., Seoul 06097, South Korea
| | - Chul-Hyun Lim
- Department of Mechanical and Biomedical Engineering, Kangwon National University, Chuncheon 24341, South Korea
| | - Chae Hun Leem
- Department of Physiology, College of Medicine, University of Ulsan, Asan Medical Center, Seoul 05505, South Korea
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22
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Paci M, Passini E, Klimas A, Severi S, Hyttinen J, Rodriguez B, Entcheva E. All-Optical Electrophysiology Refines Populations of In Silico Human iPSC-CMs for Drug Evaluation. Biophys J 2020; 118:2596-2611. [PMID: 32298635 PMCID: PMC7231889 DOI: 10.1016/j.bpj.2020.03.018] [Citation(s) in RCA: 22] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/09/2019] [Revised: 03/13/2020] [Accepted: 03/17/2020] [Indexed: 12/14/2022] Open
Abstract
High-throughput in vitro drug assays have been impacted by recent advances in human induced pluripotent stem cell-derived cardiomyocyte (hiPSC-CM) technology and by contact-free all-optical systems simultaneously measuring action potentials (APs) and Ca2+ transients (CaTrs). Parallel computational advances have shown that in silico simulations can predict drug effects with high accuracy. We combine these in vitro and in silico technologies and demonstrate the utility of high-throughput experimental data to refine in silico hiPSC-CM populations and to predict and explain drug action mechanisms. Optically obtained hiPSC-CM APs and CaTrs were used from spontaneous activity and under optical pacing in control and drug conditions at multiple doses. An updated version of the Paci2018 model was developed to refine the description of hiPSC-CM spontaneous electrical activity; a population of in silico hiPSC-CMs was constructed and calibrated using simultaneously recorded APs and CaTrs. We tested in silico five drugs (astemizole, dofetilide, ibutilide, bepridil, and diltiazem) and compared the outcomes to in vitro optical recordings. Our simulations showed that physiologically accurate population of models can be obtained by integrating AP and CaTr control records. Thus, constructed population of models correctly predicted the drug effects and occurrence of adverse episodes, even though the population was optimized only based on control data and in vitro drug testing data were not deployed during its calibration. Furthermore, the in silico investigation yielded mechanistic insights; e.g., through simulations, bepridil's more proarrhythmic action in adult cardiomyocytes compared to hiPSC-CMs could be traced to the different expression of ion currents in the two. Therefore, our work 1) supports the utility of all-optical electrophysiology in providing high-content data to refine experimentally calibrated populations of in silico hiPSC-CMs, 2) offers insights into certain limitations when translating results obtained in hiPSC-CMs to humans, and 3) shows the strength of combining high-throughput in vitro and population in silico approaches.
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Affiliation(s)
- Michelangelo Paci
- BioMediTech, Faculty of Medicine and Health Technology, Tampere University, Tampere, Finland.
| | - Elisa Passini
- Department of Computer Science, University of Oxford, Oxford, United Kingdom
| | - Aleksandra Klimas
- Department of Biological Sciences, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
| | - Stefano Severi
- Department of Electrical, Electronic and Information Engineering "Guglielmo Marconi," University of Bologna, Cesena, Italy
| | - Jari Hyttinen
- BioMediTech, Faculty of Medicine and Health Technology, Tampere University, Tampere, Finland
| | - Blanca Rodriguez
- Department of Computer Science, University of Oxford, Oxford, United Kingdom
| | - Emilia Entcheva
- Department of Biomedical Engineering, George Washington University, Washington, D.C
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Abi-Gerges N, Indersmitten T, Truong K, Nguyen W, Ratchada P, Nguyen N, Page G, Miller PE, Ghetti A. Multiparametric Mechanistic Profiling of Inotropic Drugs in Adult Human Primary Cardiomyocytes. Sci Rep 2020; 10:7692. [PMID: 32376974 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-020-64657-2] [Citation(s) in RCA: 9] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/12/2019] [Accepted: 04/10/2020] [Indexed: 01/10/2023] Open
Abstract
Effects of non-cardiac drugs on cardiac contractility can lead to serious adverse events. Furthermore, programs aimed at treating heart failure have had limited success and this therapeutic area remains a major unmet medical need. The challenges in assessing drug effect on cardiac contractility point to the fundamental translational value of the current preclinical models. Therefore, we sought to develop an adult human primary cardiomyocyte contractility model that has the potential to provide a predictive preclinical approach for simultaneously predicting drug-induced inotropic effect (sarcomere shortening) and generating multi-parameter data to profile different mechanisms of action based on cluster analysis of a set of 12 contractility parameters. We report that 17 positive and 9 negative inotropes covering diverse mechanisms of action exerted concentration-dependent increases and decreases in sarcomere shortening, respectively. Interestingly, the multiparametric readout allowed for the differentiation of inotropes operating via distinct mechanisms. Hierarchical clustering of contractility transient parameters, coupled with principal component analysis, enabled the classification of subsets of both positive as well as negative inotropes, in a mechanism-related mode. Thus, human cardiomyocyte contractility model could accurately facilitate informed mechanistic-based decision making, risk management and discovery of molecules with the most desirable pharmacological profile for the correction of heart failure.
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24
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Abi-Gerges N, Miller PE, Ghetti A. Human Heart Cardiomyocytes in Drug Discovery and Research: New Opportunities in Translational Sciences. Curr Pharm Biotechnol 2019; 21:787-806. [PMID: 31820682 DOI: 10.2174/1389201021666191210142023] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/11/2019] [Revised: 10/14/2019] [Accepted: 10/28/2019] [Indexed: 12/28/2022]
Abstract
In preclinical drug development, accurate prediction of drug effects on the human heart is critically important, whether in the context of cardiovascular safety or for the purpose of modulating cardiac function to treat heart disease. Current strategies have significant limitations, whereby, cardiotoxic drugs can escape detection or potential life-saving therapies are abandoned due to false positive toxicity signals. Thus, new and more reliable translational approaches are urgently needed to help accelerate the rate of new therapy development. Renewed efforts in the recovery of human donor hearts for research and in cardiomyocyte isolation methods, are providing new opportunities for preclinical studies in adult primary cardiomyocytes. These cells exhibit the native physiological and pharmacological properties, overcoming the limitations presented by artificial cellular models, animal models and have great potential for providing an excellent tool for preclinical drug testing. Adult human primary cardiomyocytes have already shown utility in assessing drug-induced cardiotoxicity risk and helping in the identification of new treatments for cardiac diseases, such as heart failure and atrial fibrillation. Finally, strategies with actionable decision-making trees that rely on data derived from adult human primary cardiomyocytes will provide the holistic insights necessary to accurately predict human heart effects of drugs.
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Affiliation(s)
- Najah Abi-Gerges
- AnaBios Corporation, 3030 Bunker Hill St., Suite 312, San Diego, CA 92109, United States
| | - Paul E Miller
- AnaBios Corporation, 3030 Bunker Hill St., Suite 312, San Diego, CA 92109, United States
| | - Andre Ghetti
- AnaBios Corporation, 3030 Bunker Hill St., Suite 312, San Diego, CA 92109, United States
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25
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Pang L, Sager P, Yang X, Shi H, Sannajust F, Brock M, Wu JC, Abi-Gerges N, Lyn-Cook B, Berridge BR, Stockbridge N. Workshop Report: FDA Workshop on Improving Cardiotoxicity Assessment With Human-Relevant Platforms. Circ Res 2019; 125:855-867. [PMID: 31600125 DOI: 10.1161/circresaha.119.315378] [Citation(s) in RCA: 44] [Impact Index Per Article: 8.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/15/2022]
Abstract
Given that cardiovascular safety concerns remain the leading cause of drug attrition at the preclinical drug development stage, the National Center for Toxicological Research of the US Food and Drug Administration hosted a workshop to discuss current gaps and challenges in translating preclinical cardiovascular safety data to humans. This white paper summarizes the topics presented by speakers from academia, industry, and government intended to address the theme of improving cardiotoxicity assessment in drug development. The main conclusion is that to reduce cardiovascular safety liabilities of new therapeutic agents, there is an urgent need to integrate human-relevant platforms/approaches into drug development. Potential regulatory applications of human-derived cardiomyocytes and future directions in employing human-relevant platforms to fill the gaps and overcome barriers and challenges in preclinical cardiovascular safety assessment were discussed. This paper is intended to serve as an initial step in a public-private collaborative development program for human-relevant cardiotoxicity tools, particularly for cardiotoxicities characterized by contractile dysfunction or structural injury.
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Affiliation(s)
- Li Pang
- From the Division of Systems Biology, National Center for Toxicological Research, U.S. Food and Drug Administration (L.P.)
| | | | - Xi Yang
- Division of Cardiovascular and Renal Products, Center for Drug Evaluation and Research, U.S. Food and Drug Administration (X.Y.)
| | - Hong Shi
- Discovery Toxicology, Bristol-Myers Squibb (BMS) Company (H.S.)
| | - Frederick Sannajust
- Safety & Exploratory Pharmacology Department, SALAR Division, Merck & Co (F.S.)
| | | | - Joseph C Wu
- Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford Cardiovascular Institute (J.C.W.)
| | | | - Beverly Lyn-Cook
- Division of Biochemical Toxicology, National Center for Toxicological Research, U.S. Food and Drug Administration (B.L.-C.)
| | - Brian R Berridge
- Division of the National Toxicology Program, National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, National Institutes of Health (B.R.B.)
| | - Norman Stockbridge
- Division of Cardiovascular and Renal Products, Center for Drug Evaluation and Research, U.S. Food and Drug Administration (N.S.)
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26
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Fabbri A, Goversen B, Vos MA, van Veen TAB, de Boer TP. Required G K1 to Suppress Automaticity of iPSC-CMs Depends Strongly on I K1 Model Structure. Biophys J 2019; 117:2303-2315. [PMID: 31623886 PMCID: PMC6990378 DOI: 10.1016/j.bpj.2019.08.040] [Citation(s) in RCA: 13] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/21/2019] [Revised: 07/24/2019] [Accepted: 08/26/2019] [Indexed: 01/06/2023] Open
Abstract
Human-induced pluripotent stem cells derived cardiomyocytes (hiPSC-CMs) are a virtually endless source of human cardiomyocytes that may become a great tool for safety pharmacology; however, their electrical phenotype is immature: they show spontaneous action potentials (APs) and an unstable and depolarized resting membrane potential (RMP) because of lack of IK1. Such immaturity hampers their application in assessing drug safety. The electronic overexpression of IK1 (e.g., through the dynamic clamp (DC) technique) is an option to overcome this deficit. In this computational study, we aim to estimate how much IK1 is needed to bring hiPSC-CMs to a stable and hyperpolarized RMP and which mathematical description of IK1 is most suitable for DC experiments. We compared five mature IK1 formulations (Bett, Dhamoon, Ishihara, O’Hara-Rudy, and ten Tusscher) with the native one (Paci), evaluating the main properties (outward peak, degree of rectification), and we quantified their effects on AP features (RMP, V˙max, APD50, APD90 (AP duration at 50 and 90% of repolarization), and APD50/APD90) after including them in the hiPSC-CM mathematical model by Paci. Then, we automatically identified the critical conductance for IK1 ( GK1, critical), the minimally required amount of IK1 suppressing spontaneous activity. Preconditioning the cell model with depolarizing/hyperpolarizing prepulses allowed us to highlight time dependency of the IK1 formulations. Simulations showed that inclusion of mature IK1 formulations resulted in hyperpolarized RMP and higher V˙max, and observed GK1, critical and the effect on AP duration strongly depended on IK1 formulation. Finally, the Ishihara IK1 led to shorter (−16.3%) and prolonged (+6.5%) APD90 in response to hyperpolarizing and depolarizing prepulses, respectively, whereas other models showed negligible effects. Fine-tuning of GK1 is an important step in DC experiments. Our computational work proposes a procedure to automatically identify how much IK1 current is required to inject to stop the spontaneous activity and suggests the use of the Ishihara IK1 model to perform DC experiments in hiPSC-CMs.
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Affiliation(s)
- Alan Fabbri
- University Medical Center Utrecht, Utrecht, the Netherlands
| | | | - Marc A Vos
- University Medical Center Utrecht, Utrecht, the Netherlands
| | | | - Teun P de Boer
- University Medical Center Utrecht, Utrecht, the Netherlands.
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27
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Passini E, Trovato C, Morissette P, Sannajust F, Bueno-Orovio A, Rodriguez B. Drug-induced shortening of the electromechanical window is an effective biomarker for in silico prediction of clinical risk of arrhythmias. Br J Pharmacol 2019; 176:3819-3833. [PMID: 31271649 PMCID: PMC6780030 DOI: 10.1111/bph.14786] [Citation(s) in RCA: 31] [Impact Index Per Article: 6.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/05/2018] [Revised: 05/21/2019] [Accepted: 06/28/2019] [Indexed: 12/14/2022] Open
Abstract
BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE Early identification of drug-induced cardiac adverse events is key in drug development. Human-based computer models are emerging as an effective approach, complementary to in vitro and animal models. Drug-induced shortening of the electromechanical window has been associated with increased risk of arrhythmias. This study investigates the potential of a cellular surrogate for the electromechanical window (EMw) for prediction of pro-arrhythmic cardiotoxicity, and its underlying ionic mechanisms, using human-based computer models. EXPERIMENTAL APPROACH In silico drug trials for 40 reference compounds were performed, testing up to 100-fold the therapeutic concentrations (EFTPCmax ) and using a control population of human ventricular action potential (AP) models, optimised to capture pro-arrhythmic ionic profiles. EMw was calculated for each model in the population as the difference between AP and Ca2+ transient durations at 90%. Drug-induced changes in the EMw and occurrence of repolarisation abnormalities (RA) were quantified. KEY RESULTS Drugs with clinical risk of Torsade de Pointes arrhythmias induced a concentration-dependent EMw shortening, while safe drugs lead to increase or small change in EMw. Risk predictions based on EMw shortening achieved 90% accuracy at 10× EFTPCmax , whereas RA-based predictions required 100× EFTPCmax to reach the same accuracy. As it is dependent on Ca2+ transient, the EMw was also more sensitive than AP prolongation in distinguishing between pure hERG blockers and multichannel compounds also blocking the calcium current. CONCLUSION AND IMPLICATIONS The EMw is an effective biomarker for in silico predictions of drug-induced clinical pro-arrhythmic risk, particularly for compounds with multichannel blocking action.
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Affiliation(s)
- Elisa Passini
- Department of Computer Science, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK
| | - Cristian Trovato
- Department of Computer Science, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK
| | - Pierre Morissette
- SALAR, Safety and Exploratory Pharmacology Department, Merck Research Laboratories, Merck & Co., Inc., West Point, PA, USA
| | - Frederick Sannajust
- SALAR, Safety and Exploratory Pharmacology Department, Merck Research Laboratories, Merck & Co., Inc., West Point, PA, USA
| | | | - Blanca Rodriguez
- Department of Computer Science, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK
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28
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Ledezma CA, Zhou X, Rodríguez B, Tan PJ, Díaz-Zuccarini V. A modeling and machine learning approach to ECG feature engineering for the detection of ischemia using pseudo-ECG. PLoS One 2019; 14:e0220294. [PMID: 31404081 PMCID: PMC6690680 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0220294] [Citation(s) in RCA: 18] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/30/2018] [Accepted: 07/12/2019] [Indexed: 11/19/2022] Open
Abstract
Early detection of coronary heart disease (CHD) has the potential to prevent the millions of deaths that this disease causes worldwide every year. However, there exist few automatic methods to detect CHD at an early stage. A challenge in the development of these methods is the absence of relevant datasets for their training and validation. Here, the ten Tusscher-Panfilov 2006 model and the O’Hara-Rudy model for human myocytes were used to create two populations of models that were in concordance with data obtained from healthy individuals (control populations) and included inter-subject variability. The effects of ischemia were subsequently included in the control populations to simulate the effects of mild and severe ischemic events on single cells, full ischemic cables of cells and cables of cells with various sizes of ischemic regions. Action potential and pseudo-ECG biomarkers were measured to assess how the evolution of ischemia could be quantified. Finally, two neural network classifiers were trained to identify the different degrees of ischemia using the pseudo-ECG biomarkers. The control populations showed action potential and pseudo-ECG biomarkers within the physiological ranges and the trends in the biomarkers commonly identified in ischemic patients were observed in the ischemic populations. On the one hand, inter-subject variability in the ischemic pseudo-ECGs precluded the detection and classification of early ischemic events using any single biomarker. On the other hand, the neural networks showed sensitivity and positive predictive value above 95%. Additionally, the neural networks revealed that the biomarkers that were relevant for the detection of ischemia were different from those relevant for its classification. This work showed that a computational approach could be used, when data is scarce, to validate proof-of-concept machine learning methods to detect ischemic events.
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Affiliation(s)
- Carlos A. Ledezma
- Department of Mechanical Engineering, University College London, London, United Kingdom
| | - Xin Zhou
- Department of Computer Science, University of Oxford, Oxford, United Kingdom
| | - Blanca Rodríguez
- Department of Computer Science, University of Oxford, Oxford, United Kingdom
| | - P. J. Tan
- Department of Mechanical Engineering, University College London, London, United Kingdom
| | - Vanessa Díaz-Zuccarini
- Department of Mechanical Engineering, University College London, London, United Kingdom
- Wellcome/EPSRC Centre for Interventional and Surgical Sciences (WEISS), Department of Medical Physics and Biomedical Engineering, University College London, W1W 7TS, UK
- * E-mail:
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29
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Rees CM, Yang JH, Santolini M, Lusis AJ, Weiss JN, Karma A. The Ca 2+ transient as a feedback sensor controlling cardiomyocyte ionic conductances in mouse populations. eLife 2018; 7:36717. [PMID: 30251624 PMCID: PMC6205808 DOI: 10.7554/elife.36717] [Citation(s) in RCA: 15] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/16/2018] [Accepted: 09/24/2018] [Indexed: 12/13/2022] Open
Abstract
Conductances of ion channels and transporters controlling cardiac excitation may vary in a population of subjects with different cardiac gene expression patterns. However, the amount of variability and its origin are not quantitatively known. We propose a new conceptual approach to predict this variability that consists of finding combinations of conductances generating a normal intracellular Ca2+ transient without any constraint on the action potential. Furthermore, we validate experimentally its predictions using the Hybrid Mouse Diversity Panel, a model system of genetically diverse mouse strains that allows us to quantify inter-subject versus intra-subject variability. The method predicts that conductances of inward Ca2+ and outward K+ currents compensate each other to generate a normal Ca2+ transient in good quantitative agreement with current measurements in ventricular myocytes from hearts of different isogenic strains. Our results suggest that a feedback mechanism sensing the aggregate Ca2+ transient of the heart suffices to regulate ionic conductances.
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Affiliation(s)
- Colin M Rees
- Physics Department, Northeastern University, Boston, United states.,Center for Interdisciplinary Research on Complex Systems, Northeastern University, Boston, United States
| | - Jun-Hai Yang
- Department of Medicine (Cardiology), Cardiovascular Research Laboratory, David Geffen School of Medicine, University of California, Los Angeles, United states.,Department of Physiology, David Geffen School of Medicine, University of California, Los Angeles, United States
| | - Marc Santolini
- Physics Department, Northeastern University, Boston, United states.,Center for Interdisciplinary Research on Complex Systems, Northeastern University, Boston, United States
| | - Aldons J Lusis
- Department of Medicine (Cardiology), Cardiovascular Research Laboratory, David Geffen School of Medicine, University of California, Los Angeles, United states.,Department of Physiology, David Geffen School of Medicine, University of California, Los Angeles, United States.,Department of Microbiology, David Geffen School of Medicine, University of California, Los Angeles, United States.,Department of Human Genetics, David Geffen School of Medicine, University of California, Los Angeles, United States
| | - James N Weiss
- Department of Medicine (Cardiology), Cardiovascular Research Laboratory, David Geffen School of Medicine, University of California, Los Angeles, United states.,Department of Physiology, David Geffen School of Medicine, University of California, Los Angeles, United States
| | - Alain Karma
- Physics Department, Northeastern University, Boston, United states.,Center for Interdisciplinary Research on Complex Systems, Northeastern University, Boston, United States
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30
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Abstract
In cardiac electrophysiology, there exist many sources of inter- and intra-personal variability. These include variability in conditions and environment, and genotypic and molecular diversity, including differences in expression and behavior of ion channels and transporters, which lead to phenotypic diversity (e.g., variable integrated responses at the cell, tissue, and organ levels). These variabilities play an important role in progression of heart disease and arrhythmia syndromes and outcomes of therapeutic interventions. Yet, the traditional in silico framework for investigating cardiac arrhythmias is built upon a parameter/property-averaging approach that typically overlooks the physiological diversity. Inspired by work done in genetics and neuroscience, new modeling frameworks of cardiac electrophysiology have been recently developed that take advantage of modern computational capabilities and approaches, and account for the variance in the biological data they are intended to illuminate. In this review, we outline the recent advances in statistical and computational techniques that take into account physiological variability, and move beyond the traditional cardiac model-building scheme that involves averaging over samples from many individuals in the construction of a highly tuned composite model. We discuss how these advanced methods have harnessed the power of big (simulated) data to study the mechanisms of cardiac arrhythmias, with a special emphasis on atrial fibrillation, and improve the assessment of proarrhythmic risk and drug response. The challenges of using in silico approaches with variability are also addressed and future directions are proposed.
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Affiliation(s)
| | | | - Eleonora Grandi
- Department of Pharmacology, University of California, Davis, Davis, CA, United States
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31
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An Z, Yang G, Liu X, Zhang Z, Liu G. New Progress in Understanding the Cellular Mechanisms of Anti-arrhythmic Drugs. Open Life Sci 2018; 13:335-339. [PMID: 33817101 PMCID: PMC7874705 DOI: 10.1515/biol-2018-0041] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/04/2018] [Accepted: 06/08/2018] [Indexed: 11/30/2022] Open
Abstract
Antiarrhythmic drugs are widely used, however, their efficacy is moderate and they can have serious side effects. Even if catheter ablation is effective for the treatment of atrial fibrillation and ventricular tachycardia, antiarrhythmic drugs are still important tools for the treatment of arrhythmia. Despite efforts, the development of antiarrhythmic drugs is still slow due to the limited understanding of the role of various ionic currents. This review summarizes the new targets and mechanisms of antiarrhythmic drugs.
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Affiliation(s)
- Zhe An
- Department of Cardiology, China-Japan Union Hospital of Jilin University, Changchun 130033, Jilin, P.R. China
| | - Guang Yang
- Department of Molecular Biology, College of Basic Medical Science, Jilin University, Changchun 130033, Jilin, P.R. China
| | - Xuanxuan Liu
- Department of Cardiology, China-Japan Union Hospital of Jilin University, Changchun 130033, Jilin, P.R. China
| | - Zhongfan Zhang
- Department of Cardiology, China-Japan Union Hospital of Jilin University, Changchun 130033, Jilin, P.R. China
| | - Guohui Liu
- Department of Cardiology, China-Japan Union Hospital of Jilin University, Changchun 130033, Jilin, P.R. China
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Nguyen N, Nguyen W, Nguyenton B, Ratchada P, Page G, Miller PE, Ghetti A, Abi-Gerges N. Adult Human Primary Cardiomyocyte-Based Model for the Simultaneous Prediction of Drug-Induced Inotropic and Pro-arrhythmia Risk. Front Physiol 2017; 8:1073. [PMID: 29311989 PMCID: PMC5742250 DOI: 10.3389/fphys.2017.01073] [Citation(s) in RCA: 40] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/04/2017] [Accepted: 12/06/2017] [Indexed: 12/19/2022] Open
Abstract
Cardiac safety remains the leading cause of drug development discontinuation. We developed a human cardiomyocyte-based model that has the potential to provide a predictive preclinical approach for simultaneously predicting drug-induced inotropic and pro-arrhythmia risk. Methods: Adult human primary cardiomyocytes from ethically consented organ donors were used to measure contractility transients. We used measures of changes in contractility parameters as markers to infer both drug-induced inotropic effect (sarcomere shortening) and pro-arrhythmia (aftercontraction, AC); contractility escape (CE); time to 90% relaxation (TR90). We addressed the clinical relevance of this approach by evaluating the effects of 23 torsadogenic and 10 non-torsadogenic drugs. Each drug was tested separately at four multiples of the free effective therapeutic plasma concentration (fETPC). Results: Human cardiomyocyte-based model differentiated between torsadogenic and non-torsadogenic drugs. For example, dofetilide, a torsadogenic drug, caused ACs and increased TR90 starting at 10-fold the fETPC, while CE events were observed at the highest multiple of fETPC (100-fold). Verapamil, a non-torsadogenic drug, did not change TR90 and induced no AC or CE up to the highest multiple of fETPCs tested in this study (222-fold). When drug pro-arrhythmic activity was evaluated at 10-fold of the fETPC, AC parameter had excellent assay sensitivity and specificity values of 96 and 100%, respectively. This high predictivity supports the translational safety potential of this preparation and of the selected marker. The data demonstrate that human cardiomyocytes could also identify drugs associated with inotropic effects. hERG channel blockers, like dofetilide, had no effects on sarcomere shortening, while multi-ion channel blockers, like verapamil, inhibited sarcomere shortening. Conclusions: Isolated adult human primary cardiomyocytes can simultaneously predict risks associated with inotropic activity and pro-arrhythmia and may enable the generation of reliable and predictive data for assessing human cardiotoxicity at an early stage in drug discovery.
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Affiliation(s)
| | | | | | | | - Guy Page
- AnaBios Corporation, San Diego, CA, United States
| | | | - Andre Ghetti
- AnaBios Corporation, San Diego, CA, United States
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Krogh-Madsen T, Jacobson AF, Ortega FA, Christini DJ. Global Optimization of Ventricular Myocyte Model to Multi-Variable Objective Improves Predictions of Drug-Induced Torsades de Pointes. Front Physiol 2017; 8:1059. [PMID: 29311985 PMCID: PMC5742183 DOI: 10.3389/fphys.2017.01059] [Citation(s) in RCA: 22] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/07/2017] [Accepted: 12/04/2017] [Indexed: 01/22/2023] Open
Abstract
In silico cardiac myocyte models present powerful tools for drug safety testing and for predicting phenotypical consequences of ion channel mutations, but their accuracy is sometimes limited. For example, several models describing human ventricular electrophysiology perform poorly when simulating effects of long QT mutations. Model optimization represents one way of obtaining models with stronger predictive power. Using a recent human ventricular myocyte model, we demonstrate that model optimization to clinical long QT data, in conjunction with physiologically-based bounds on intracellular calcium and sodium concentrations, better constrains model parameters. To determine if the model optimized to congenital long QT data better predicts risk of drug-induced long QT arrhythmogenesis, in particular Torsades de Pointes risk, we tested the optimized model against a database of known arrhythmogenic and non-arrhythmogenic ion channel blockers. When doing so, the optimized model provided an improved risk assessment. In particular, we demonstrate an elimination of false-positive outcomes generated by the baseline model, in which simulations of non-torsadogenic drugs, in particular verapamil, predict action potential prolongation. Our results underscore the importance of currents beyond those directly impacted by a drug block in determining torsadogenic risk. Our study also highlights the need for rich data in cardiac myocyte model optimization and substantiates such optimization as a method to generate models with higher accuracy of predictions of drug-induced cardiotoxicity.
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Affiliation(s)
- Trine Krogh-Madsen
- Greenberg Division of Cardiology, Department of Medicine, Weill Cornell Medicine, New York, NY, United States.,Institute for Computational Biomedicine, Weill Cornell Medicine, New York, NY, United States.,Cardiovascular Research Institute, Weill Cornell Medicine, New York, NY, United States
| | - Anna F Jacobson
- Cardiovascular Research Institute, Weill Cornell Medicine, New York, NY, United States
| | - Francis A Ortega
- Physiology, Biophysics and Systems Biology Graduate Program, Weill Cornell Graduate School, New York, NY, United States
| | - David J Christini
- Greenberg Division of Cardiology, Department of Medicine, Weill Cornell Medicine, New York, NY, United States.,Institute for Computational Biomedicine, Weill Cornell Medicine, New York, NY, United States.,Cardiovascular Research Institute, Weill Cornell Medicine, New York, NY, United States
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Lee W, Windley MJ, Vandenberg JI, Hill AP. In Vitro and In Silico Risk Assessment in Acquired Long QT Syndrome: The Devil Is in the Details. Front Physiol 2017; 8:934. [PMID: 29201009 PMCID: PMC5696636 DOI: 10.3389/fphys.2017.00934] [Citation(s) in RCA: 11] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/18/2017] [Accepted: 11/03/2017] [Indexed: 12/16/2022] Open
Abstract
Acquired long QT syndrome, mostly as a result of drug block of the Kv11. 1 potassium channel in the heart, is characterized by delayed cardiac myocyte repolarization, prolongation of the T interval on the ECG, syncope and sudden cardiac death due to the polymorphic ventricular arrhythmia Torsade de Pointes (TdP). In recent years, efforts are underway through the Comprehensive in vitro proarrhythmic assay (CiPA) initiative, to develop better tests for this drug induced arrhythmia based in part on in silico simulations of pharmacological disruption of repolarization. However, drug binding to Kv11.1 is more complex than a simple binary molecular reaction, meaning simple steady state measures of potency are poor surrogates for risk. As a result, there is a plethora of mechanistic detail describing the drug/Kv11.1 interaction—such as drug binding kinetics, state preference, temperature dependence and trapping—that needs to be considered when developing in silico models for risk prediction. In addition to this, other factors, such as multichannel pharmacological profile and the nature of the ventricular cell models used in simulations also need to be considered in the search for the optimum in silico approach. Here we consider how much of mechanistic detail needs to be included for in silico models to accurately predict risk and further, how much of this detail can be retrieved from protocols that are practical to implement in high throughout screens as part of next generation of preclinical in silico drug screening approaches?
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Affiliation(s)
- William Lee
- Molecular Cardiology and Biophysics Division, Victor Chang Cardiac Research Institute, Darlinghurst, NSW, Australia.,St. Vincent's Clinical School, University of New South Wales, Sydney, NSW, Australia
| | - Monique J Windley
- Molecular Cardiology and Biophysics Division, Victor Chang Cardiac Research Institute, Darlinghurst, NSW, Australia.,St. Vincent's Clinical School, University of New South Wales, Sydney, NSW, Australia
| | - Jamie I Vandenberg
- Molecular Cardiology and Biophysics Division, Victor Chang Cardiac Research Institute, Darlinghurst, NSW, Australia.,St. Vincent's Clinical School, University of New South Wales, Sydney, NSW, Australia
| | - Adam P Hill
- Molecular Cardiology and Biophysics Division, Victor Chang Cardiac Research Institute, Darlinghurst, NSW, Australia.,St. Vincent's Clinical School, University of New South Wales, Sydney, NSW, Australia
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Lane JD, Tinker A. Have the Findings from Clinical Risk Prediction and Trials Any Key Messages for Safety Pharmacology? Front Physiol 2017; 8:890. [PMID: 29163223 PMCID: PMC5681497 DOI: 10.3389/fphys.2017.00890] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/26/2017] [Accepted: 10/20/2017] [Indexed: 01/28/2023] Open
Abstract
Anti-arrhythmic drugs are a mainstay in the management of symptoms related to arrhythmias, and are adjuncts in prevention and treatment of life-threatening ventricular arrhythmias. However, they also have the potential for pro-arrhythmia and thus the prediction of arrhythmia predisposition and drug response are critical issues. Clinical trials are the latter stages in the safety testing and efficacy process prior to market release, and as such serve as a critical safeguard. In this review, we look at some of the lessons to be learned from approaches to arrhythmia prediction in patients, clinical trials of drugs used in the treatment of arrhythmias, and the implications for the design of pre-clinical safety pharmacology testing.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jem D Lane
- William Harvey Heart Centre, Barts and The London School of Medicine and Dentistry, London, United Kingdom.,Department of Cardiac Electrophysiology, Barts Heart Centre, St Bartholomew's Hospital, London, United Kingdom
| | - Andrew Tinker
- William Harvey Heart Centre, Barts and The London School of Medicine and Dentistry, London, United Kingdom
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