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Funding: UK Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council [grant number EP/N509711/1 (J.K.)]. Chaste (Cancer, Heart And Soft Tissue Environment) is an open source simulation package for the numerical solution of mathematical models arising in physiology and biology. To date, Chaste development has been driven primarily by applications that include continuum modelling of cardiac electrophysiology (‘Cardiac Chaste’), discrete cell-based modelling of soft tissues (‘Cell-based Chaste’), and modelling of ventilation in lungs (‘Lung Chaste’). Cardiac Chaste addresses the need for a high-performance, generic, and verified simulation framewor kfor cardiac electrophysiology that is freely available to the scientific community. Cardiac chaste provides a software package capable of realistic heart simulations that is efficient, rigorously tested, and runs on HPC platforms. Cell-based Chaste addresses the need for efficient and verified implementations of cell-based modelling frameworks, providing a set of extensible tools for simulating biological tissues. Computational modelling, along with live imaging techniques, plays an important role in understanding the processes of tissue growth and repair. A wide range of cell-based modelling frameworks have been developed that have each been successfully applied in a range of biological applications. Cell-based Chaste includes implementations of the cellular automaton model, the cellular Potts model, cell-centre models with cell representations as overlapping spheres or Voronoi tessellations, and the vertex model. Lung Chaste addresses the need for a novel, generic and efficient lung modelling software package that is both tested and verified. It aims to couple biophysically-detailed models of airway mechanics with organ-scale ventilation models in a package that is freely available to the scientific community. Publisher PDF

The Comprehensive in vitro Proarrhythmia Assay (CiPA) is a global initiative intended to improve drug proarrhythmia risk assessment using a new paradigm of mechanistic assays. Under the CiPA paradigm, the relative risk of drug-induced Torsade de Pointes (TdP) is assessed using an in silico model of the human ventricular action potential (AP) that integrates in vitro pharmacology data from multiple ion channels. Thus, modeling predictions of cardiac risk liability will depend critically on the variability in pharmacology data, and uncertainty quantification (UQ) must comprise an essential component of the in silico assay. This study explores UQ methods that may be incorporated into the CiPA framework. Recently, we proposed a promising in silico TdP risk metric (qNet), which is derived from AP simulations and allows separation of a set of CiPA training compounds into Low, Intermediate, and High TdP risk categories. The purpose of this study was to use UQ to evaluate the robustness of TdP risk separation by qNet. Uncertainty in the model parameters used to describe drug binding and ionic current block was estimated using the non-parametric bootstrap method and a Bayesian inference approach. Uncertainty was then propagated through AP simulations to quantify uncertainty in qNet for each drug. UQ revealed lower uncertainty and more accurate TdP risk stratification by qNet when simulations were run at concentrations below 5× the maximum therapeutic exposure (Cmax). However, when drug effects were extrapolated above 10× Cmax, UQ showed that qNet could no longer clearly separate drugs by TdP risk. This was because for most of the pharmacology data, the amount of current block measured was

Loperamide (Immodium®) is indicated for symptomatic control of diarrhea. It is a μ-opioid receptor agonist, and recently has been associated with misuse and abuse. At therapeutic doses loperamide has not been associated with cardiotoxicity. However, loperamide overdose is associated with proarrhythmia and death - two effects that are likely attributable to its block of cardiac ion channels that are critical for generating action potentials. In this study, we defined loperamide-hERG channel interaction characteristics, and used a ventricular myocyte action potential model to compare loperamide's proarrhythmia propensity to twelve drugs with defined levels of clinical risk.Whole-cell voltage-clamp recordings were performed at 37°C on a HEK293 cell line stably expressing the hERG channel proteins, and loperamide was bath-applied to assess its effects on hERG current. Loperamide suppressed hERG current in a use- and voltage-dependent but frequency-independent manner, with a half-maximal inhibitory concentration90nM. The onset of current suppression was concentration-dependent and appeared to follow a first-order reaction. Loperamide also altered the voltage-dependence of steady state hERG current properties. Electrophysiological data were integrated into a myocyte model that simulated dynamic drug-hERG channel interaction to estimate Torsade de Pointes risk through comparisons with reference drugs with defined clinical risk. In the context of overdose that would result in loperamide levels far exceeding those produced by therapeutic doses, loperamide is placed in the high risk category, alongside quinidine, bepridil, dofetilide, and sotalol.The combined in vitro and in silico approach provides mechanistic insight regarding the potential for loperamide to generate cardiotoxicity in overdose situations. This strategy holds promise for improving cardiac safety assessment.

Background— The current proarrhythmia safety testing paradigm, although highly efficient in preventing new torsadogenic drugs from entering the market, has important limitations that can restrict the development and use of valuable new therapeutics. The CiPA (Comprehensive in vitro Proarrhythmia Assay) proposes to overcome these limitations by evaluating drug effects on multiple cardiac ion channels in vitro and using these data in a predictive in silico model of the adult human ventricular myocyte. A set of drugs with known clinical torsade de pointes risk was selected to develop and calibrate the in silico model. Methods and Results— Manual patch-clamp data assessing drug effects on expressed cardiac ion channels were integrated into the O’Hara–Rudy myocyte model modified to include dynamic drug–hERG channel (human Ether-à-go-go-Related Gene) interactions. Together with multichannel pharmacology data, this model predicts that compounds with high torsadogenic risk are more likely to be trapped within the hERG channel and show stronger reverse use dependency of action potential prolongation. Furthermore, drug-induced changes in the amount of electronic charge carried by the late sodium and L-type calcium currents was evaluated as a potential metric for assigning torsadogenic risk. Conclusions— Modeling dynamic drug–hERG channel interactions and multi-ion channel pharmacology improves the prediction of torsadogenic risk. With further development, these methods have the potential to improve the regulatory assessment of drug safety models under the CiPA paradigm.

The Comprehensive in vitro Proarrhythmia Assay (CiPA) is a regulatory paradigm proposed to replace the ICH S7B and E14 guidelines for assessing drug-induced proarrhythmia. Under CiPA, drug effects on multiple cardiac ion channels will be measured in vitro and integrated into an in silico model of the adult human ventricular cell, based on the O'Hara-Rudy (ORd) model. However, the ORd model does not accurately represent certain ionic currents known to be critical in triggering drug-induced arrhythmias, such as the late sodium current (I NaL ). The goal of the present study is to systematically assess and improve the simulation of the main depolarizing and repolarizing ionic currents (the inward rectifying potassium currents, L-type calcium current and I NaL ) in the ORd model. We present a new model with scaled conductances calculated by fitting to O'Hara et al. in vitro human cardiomyocyte channel blocking experiments using a genetic algorithm, which improves discrepancies of the original model. The modified model particularly improves the effect of INaL block on action potential prolongation, an important determinant of proarrhythmia risk in the context of CiPA.

Introduction Current regulatory guidelines for assessing the risk of QT prolongation include in vitro assays assessing drug effects on the human ether-a-go-go-related (hERG; also known as Kv11.1) channel expressed in cell lines. These assays are typically conducted at room temperature to promote the ease and stability of recording hERG currents. However, the new Comprehensive in vitro Proarrhythmia Assay (CiPA) paradigm proposes to use an in silico model of the human ventricular myocyte to assess risk, requiring as input hERG channel pharmacology data obtained at physiological temperatures. To accommodate current industry safety pharmacology practices for measuring hERG channel activity, an in silico model of hERG channel that allows for the extrapolation of hERG assay data across different temperatures is desired. Because temperature may have an effect on both channel gating and drug binding rate, such models may need to have two components: a base model dealing with temperature-dependent gating changes without drug, and a pharmacodynamic component simulating temperature-dependent drug binding kinetics. As a first step, a base mode that can capture temperature effects on hERG channel gating without drug is needed. Methods and results To meet this need for a temperature-dependent base model, a Markov model of the hERG channel with state transition rates explicitly dependent on temperature was developed and calibrated using data from a variety of published experiments conducted over a range of temperatures. The model was able to reproduce observed temperature-dependent changes in key channel gating properties and also to predict the results obtained in independent sets of new experiments. Discussion This new temperature-sensitive model of hERG gating represents an attempt to improve the predictivity of safety pharmacology testing by enabling the translation of room temperature hERG assay data to more physiological conditions. With further development, this model can be incorporated into the CiPA paradigm and also be used as a tool for developing insights into the thermodynamics of hERG channel gating mechanisms and the temperature-dependence of hERG channel block by drugs.

The occlusion of a coronary artery results in myocardial ischemia, significantly disturbing the heart's normal electrical behavior, with potentially lethal consequences, such as sustained arrhythmias. Biologists attempt to shed light on underlying mechanisms with optical voltage mapping, a widely used technique for non-contact visualization of surface electrical activity. However, this method suffers from signal distortion due to fluorescent photon scattering within the biological tissue. The distortion effect may be more pronounced during ischemia, when a gradient of electrophysiological properties exists at the surface of the heart due to diffusion with the surrounding environment. In this paper, a combined experimental and computer simulation investigation into how photon scattering, in the presence of ischemia-induced spatial heterogeneities, distorts optical mapping recordings is performed. Dual excitation wavelength optical mapping experiments are conducted in rabbit hearts. In order to interpret experimental results a computer simulation study is performed using a 3D model of ischemic rabbit cardiac tissue combined with a model of photon diffusion to simulate optical mapping recordings. Results show that the presence of a border zone, in combination with fluorescent photon scattering, distorts the optical signal. Furthermore, changes in the illumination wavelength can alter the relative contribution of the border zone to the emitted signal. The techniques developed in this study may help with interpretation of optical mapping data in electrophysiological investigations of myocardial ischemia. © 2011 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg.