Calcium Handling in Inherited Cardiac Diseases: A Focus on Catecholaminergic Polymorphic Ventricular Tachycardia and Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy

Calcium (Ca(2+)) is the major mediator of cardiac contractile function. It plays a key role in regulating excitation–contraction coupling and modulating the systolic and diastolic phases. Defective handling of intracellular Ca(2+) can cause different types of cardiac dysfunction. Thus, the remodeling of Ca(2+) handling has been proposed to be a part of the pathological mechanism leading to electrical and structural heart diseases. Indeed, to ensure appropriate electrical cardiac conduction and contraction, Ca(2+) levels are regulated by several Ca(2+)-related proteins. This review focuses on the genetic etiology of cardiac diseases related to calcium mishandling. We will approach the subject by focalizing on two clinical entities: catecholaminergic polymorphic ventricular tachycardia (CPVT) as a cardiac channelopathy and hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM) as a primary cardiomyopathy. Further, this review will illustrate the fact that despite the genetic and allelic heterogeneity of cardiac defects, calcium-handling perturbations are the common pathophysiological mechanism. The newly identified calcium-related genes and the genetic overlap between the associated heart diseases are also discussed in this review.