Living Heart Project: A virtual heart for improved drug testing
2019
Universität Hohenheim, Stuttgart, Germany
Human iPSCs are differentiated into cardiomyocytes and the response of single cells and cell assemblies to a specific drug is investigated. In order to map cell behaviour, the cells are attached to the electrodes of a device that measures the propagation of action potentials (APs) or changes thereof in response to a pharmaceutical. The AP propagation through the heart muscle cells physiologically leads to heart contraction. Therefore by measuring the AP propagation, it can be tested whether certain drugs could lead to cardiac rhythm disturbances. The obtained data is fed to a mathematical computer model that can predict the possible side effects of new drugs before they are tested in volunteers. With this method, drug tests can be made faster, safer and cheaper.
Comparison of in vitro and computational experiments on the relation of inter-beat interval and duration of repolarization in a specific type of human induced pluripotent stem cell-derived cardiomyocytes
Georg Rast
Added on: 05-25-2020
[1] https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0221763[2] https://medizin-aspekte.de/living-heart-project-virtuelles-herz-fuer-bessere-medikamententests-weniger-tierversuche-93868/
