Drug to prevent sudden cardiac death

An experimental drug that corrects a molecular defect implicated in heart failure deaths could hold promise for millions of people, according to a paper. The drug appears to patch a leak in the heart’s calcium channel, which if not addressed, can lead to a potentially deadly irregular heartbeat and a slow deterioration in the cardiac function in heart failure patients. In preliminary tests on mice with the defect, researchers at New York’s Columbia University Medical Center found the drug prevented sudden death from arrhythmia or erratic heartbeat. All 10 of the mice treated with the drug thrived, while eight out of nine untreated mice became arrhythmic and died. “The drug will be an incredible advance if it works in patients,” said Andrew Marks, director of the Center for Molecular Cardiology at Columbia. “It represents the beginning of an era when drugs will directly fix the molecular defects in heart failure. While our drug is one of the first molecular-based therapies for heart failure and arrhythmias, it won’t be the last.” The current treatments for heart failure — the impairment of the heart to pump blood — range from highly toxic cocktails of drugs, to invasive and costly procedures involving defibrillators or heart transplants. Marks contends the drug could also be used to improve the quality of life of heart failure patients, again by “patching” the leak that allows calcium ions to seep into heart cells, a phenomenon he says is a contributory factor in the disease’s progression. “By fixing the leak, you could potentially slow the progression of heart failure and allow patients to live their lives more normally, not in and out of hospital,” said Marks. “Our idea is to take a pill instead of spending hundreds of thousands of dollars on implants and heart transplants.” The study appears in Friday’s edition of the journal Science. —AFP

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