Abstract
Mutations of the SCN5A gene can significantly alter the function of cardiac myocyte sodium channels leading to increased risk of ventricular arrhythmia. Over the past decade, detailed Markov models of the action potential of cardiac cells have been developed. In such models, the effects of a drug can be treated as alterations in on- and off rates between open and inactivated states on one hand, and blocked states on the other hand. Our aim is to compute the rates specifying a drug in order to: (a) restore the steady-state open probability of the mutant channel to that of normal wild type channels; and (b) minimize the difference between whole cell currents in drugged mutant and wild type cells. The difference in the electrochemical state vector of the cell can be measured in a norm taking all components and their dynamical properties into account. Measured with this norm, the difference between the state of the mutant and wild-type cell was reduced by a factor of 36 after the drug was introduced and by factors of 4 over mexitiline and 25 over lidocaine. The results suggest the potential to synthesize more effective drugs based on mechanisms of action of existing compounds.
Highlights
Instabilities in cardiac myocyte cellular dynamics can trigger or maintain arrhythmias, that can be life threatening
Gene mutations or adverse drug effects that prolong myocyte action potential duration are associated with prolongation of the QT interval of the electrocardiogram and increased risk of reentrant ventricular tachy-arrhythmias such as Torsades de Pointes (TdP)
We have considered mathematical models of cardiac cells affected by mutations in the SCN5A gene
Summary
Instabilities in cardiac myocyte cellular dynamics can trigger or maintain arrhythmias, that can be life threatening. Gene mutations or adverse drug effects that prolong myocyte action potential duration are associated with prolongation of the QT interval of the electrocardiogram and increased risk of reentrant ventricular tachy-arrhythmias such as Torsades de Pointes (TdP). Advances in the understanding of the genetic basis of cardiac ion channels have revealed that mutant alleles of several cardiac ion channel genes are associated with long QT syndrome (LQTS) in humans. Supported by a Center of Excellence grant from the Norwegian Research Council to Center for Biomedical Computing at Simula Research Laboratory and NIH grant P41 RR08605
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