Optogenetic suppression of drug-induced early afterdepolarisations in the zebrafish heart

Abstract

Early after-depolarisations (EADs) are electrical disturbances of cardiomyocytes that interrupt the repolarisation phase of the cardiac action potential (AP) and can lead to premature excitation and sustained arrhythmias. Optogenetics has the potential to prevent EADs by using genetically-expressed light-activated ion channels to aid in AP repolarisation. Our goal was to investigate the use of optogenetics to modulate membrane potential (Vm) of ventricular cardiomyocytes for the suppression of EADs in the whole zebrafish heart.