Can patient-specific hiPSC-CMs recapitulate the cellular phenotype of Short QT Syndrome and be used to test drug effects?
Patient-specific hiPSC-CMs successfully model the cellular phenotype of Short QT Syndrome and demonstrate that quinidine is effective in reversing the electrophysiological abnormalities.
BACKGROUND: Short QT syndrome (SQTS), a disorder associated with characteristic ECG QT-segment abbreviation, predisposes affected patients to sudden cardiac death. Despite some progress in assessing the organ-level pathophysiology and genetic changes of the disorder, the understanding of the human cellular phenotype and discovering of an optimal therapy has lagged because of a lack of appropriate human cellular models of the disorder. The objective of this study was to establish a cellular model of SQTS using human-induced pluripotent stem cell-derived cardiomyocytes (hiPSC-CMs). METHODS AND RESULTS: ) density and shortened action potential duration compared with healthy control hiPSC-CMs. Furthermore, they demonstrated abnormal calcium transients and rhythmic activities. Carbachol increased the arrhythmic events in SQTS but not in control cells. Gene and protein expression profiling showed increased KCNH2 expression in SQTS cells. Quinidine but not sotalol or metoprolol prolonged the action potential duration and abolished arrhythmic activity induced by carbachol. CONCLUSIONS: Patient-specific hiPSC-CMs are able to recapitulate single-cell phenotype features of SQTS and provide novel opportunities to further elucidate the cellular disease mechanism and test drug effects.
El‐Battrawy et al. (Sat,) studied this question.