New drug tackles the molecular cause of arrhythmia could save millions of lives

Main Category: Transplants / Organ Donations
Article Date: 09 Apr 2004 - 0:00 PDT

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A new drug which tackles the molecular cause of dangerous erratic heart beats completely prevents sudden death in mice that have the same defect as humans with heart failure. This so called 'wonder drug' could save millions of lives around the world.

Dr. Andrew Marks, team leader in this new study said "The drug will be an incredible advance if it works in patients. 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."

Do not confuse heart failure and heart attack. Heart failure is when the heart's ability to pump blood over a period of years deteriorates. If you suffer from heart failure you can suddenly die from erratic heart beat - arrhythmia. In the US, for example, 4.6 million people have heart failure and over 2 million of those will die because of it (suffer sudden death).

The problem with current drugs for erratic heart beat is that they are very toxic. In fact, most of them are not on the market any more - they have been removed.

So, the only real treatment available today is implanted defibrillators. They administer electric shocks to the heart. Heart transplants are also an option.

This new drug is currently called JTV519. It tackles the problem of dangerous erratic heart beats at molecular level - the leakage of electrically charged calcium atoms (ions) into heart cells.

JTV519 uses a protein to stop the calcium leak. The scientists tried this out on ten mice which had heart failure - arrhythmia. After taking the medicine the completely recovered and never had another irregular heart beat again. The other nine mice that did not receive this medication all died but one.

Dr. Marks said "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 hospitals. Our idea is to take a pill instead of spending hundreds of thousands of dollars on implants and heart transplants."

Dr. Andrew Marks - Columbia physiology and cellular biophysics professor

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