Key result
Sonogenetic control of Piezo1 channels offers a theoretical mechanism for safe and painless targeted defibrillation.
Why the study?
Current widely used implantable cardioverter defibrillators are invasive and affect patient quality of life, prompting the need for novel defibrillation mechanisms.
A novel electro-mechanical model suggests that sonogenetics using focused ultrasound to activate Piezo1 channels could serve as a safe, non-invasive antiarrhythmic mechanism.
Arrhythmia of the heart is a dangerous and potentially fatal condition. The current widely used treatment is the implantable cardioverter defibrillator (ICD), but it is invasive and affects the patient's quality of life. The sonogenetic mechanism proposed here focuses ultrasound on a cardiac tissue, controls endogenous stretch-activated Piezo1 ion channels on the focal region's cardiomyocyte sarcolemma, and restores normal heart rhythm. In contrast to anchoring the implanted ICD lead at a fixed position in the myocardium, the size and position of the ultrasound focal region can be selected dynamically by adjusting the signals of every piezoelectric chip on the ultrasonic phased array, and it allows novel and efficient defibrillations. Based on the developed interdisciplinary electro-mechanical model of sonogenetic treatment, our analysis shows that the proposed ultrasound intensity and frequency will be safe and painless for humans and well below the limits established by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
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Li et al. (2025) studied Arrhythmia. Sonogenetic treatment (ultrasound) vs. Implantable cardioverter defibrillator (ICD) was evaluated. Sonogenetic treatment using focused ultrasound to control Piezo1 ion channels was proposed as a safe and painless mechanism for dynamically targeted defibrillation based on an electro-mechanical model.
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