Antiarrhythmic Pharmacology Research Articles

Implications of Antiarrhythmic Pharmacology.

Implications of Antiarrhythmic Pharmacology.

Antiarrhythmic potential of drugs targeting the cardiac ryanodine receptor Ca2+ release channel: case study of dantrolene.

Driven by the limitations of the traditional antiarrhythmic pharmacology, current antiarrhythmic research is trying to identify new avenues for the development of specific and safe antiarrhythmic drugs. One of the most promising approaches in this field is the amelioration of the abnormal events in cellular Ca(2+) handling originating from the dysfunction of ryanodine receptor Ca(2+) release complex (RyR), which is an inevitable key factor in the pathology of myocardial dysfunction, remodeling and arrhythmogenesis. Accordingly, both in experimental and clinical situations, inhibition of abnormal activity of RyR, regardless of being the primary cause or a consequence during the pathogenesis appears to exert beneficial effect on disease outcome, including a marked antiarrhythmic defense. Considerable amount of our knowledge in this field originates from studies using dantrolene, a human drug with RyR stabilizing effect. Our review summarizes the cardiovascular pharmacology of dantrolene and the results of its use in experimental models of cardiac diseases, which emphasize a promising perspective for the possible antiarrhythmic application of RyR inhibition in the future.

Lipid metabolites and their differential pro-arrhythmic profiles: of importance in the development of a new anti-arrhythmic pharmacology.

Arrhythmias have been treated for a long time with drugs that mainly target the ionic pumps and channels. These anti-arrhythmic regimens per se introduce new arrhythmias, which can be detrimental to patients. Advances in development of novel pharmacology without introduction of iatrogenic arrhythmias are thus favorable for an effective treatment of arrhythmias. Electrophysiological stability of the heart has been shown to be closely associated with cardiac metabolism. The present effective anti-arrhythmic drugs such as beta-blockers and amiodarone have profound beneficial effects in regulating myocardial metabolism. Aiming at decreasing production of toxic metabolites or preventing accumulation of arrhythmogenic lipids perhaps is a good strategy to effectively control arrhythmias. Therefore, a better understanding of the pro-arrhythmic profiles of cardiac metabolites helps to explore a new generation of metabolically oriented anti-arrhythmic medications. In this review, we present several lipid metabolites and summarize their arrhythmogenic characteristics.

Antifibrillatory Agents and Potassium Channels in the Atria: Pore Block versus Channel Trafficking

Atrial fibrillation (AF) is the most common cardiac arrhythmia. The preferred therapy for AF is sustained sinus rhythm control; however, the efficacy of currently used antiarrythmic drugs is limited by adverse side effects resulting from both a lack of ion channel selectivity and nonspecific ventricular activity. The role of the voltage-gated potassium channels in atrial myocyte repolarization and the subsequent control of action potential duration renders them attractive targets for antiarrhythmic drugs in the treatment of AF. Conventional antiarrhythmic drugs generally target the ion permeability of potassium channels. This review discusses the limitations of this traditional approach and introduces, as a novel paradigm for antiarrhythmic pharmacology, the decrease of ion channel cell surface density through the modulation of ion channel trafficking pathways.

Anti-arrhythmic pharmacology

Anti-arrhythmic pharmacology

SYMPOSIUM ON ANTIARRHYTHMIC PHARMACOLOGY

SYMPOSIUM ON ANTIARRHYTHMIC PHARMACOLOGY