New in vitro multiple cardiac ion channel screening system for preclinical Torsades de Pointes risk prediction under the Comprehensive in vitro Proarrhythmia Assay concepta

Cardiotoxicity, particularly drug-induced Torsades de Pointes (TdP), is a concern in drug safety assessment. The recent establishment of human induced pluripotent stem cell-derived cardiomyocytes (human iPSC-CMs) has become an attractive human-based platform for predicting cardiotoxicity. Moreover, electrophysiological assessment of multiple cardiac ion channel blocks is emerging as an important parameter to recapitulate proarrhythmic cardiotoxicity. Therefore, we aimed to establish a novel in vitro multiple cardiac ion channel screening-based method using human iPSC-CMs to predict the drug-induced arrhythmogenic risk. To explain the cellular mechanisms underlying the cardiotoxicity of three representative TdP high- (sotalol), intermediate- (chlorpromazine), and low-risk (mexiletine) drugs, and their effects on the cardiac action potential (AP) waveform and voltage-gated ion channels were explored using human iPSC-CMs. In a proof-of-principle experiment, we investigated the effects of cardioactive channel inhibitors on the electrophysiological profile of human iPSC-CMs before evaluating the cardiotoxicity of these drugs. In human iPSC-CMs, sotalol prolonged the AP duration and reduced the total amplitude (TA) via selective inhibition of I(Kr) and I(Na) currents, which are associated with an increased risk of ventricular tachycardia TdP. In contrast, chlorpromazine did not affect the TA; however, it slightly increased AP duration via balanced inhibition of I(Kr) and I(Ca) currents. Moreover, mexiletine did not affect the TA, yet slightly reduced the AP duration via dominant inhibition of I(Ca) currents, which are associated with a decreased risk of ventricular tachycardia TdP. Based on these results, we suggest that human iPSC-CMs can be extended to other preclinical protocols and can supplement drug safety assessments.