Evaluation system for arrhythmogenic potential of drugs using human-induced pluripotent stem cell-derived cardiomyocytes and gene expression analysis

In recent years, human-induced pluripotent stem cell-derived cardiomyocytes (hiPS-CMs) have been widely used to develop evaluation systems for drug cardiotoxicity, including the arrhythmia caused by QT prolongation. To accurately assess the arrhythmogenic potential of drugs, associated with QT prolongation, we developed an evaluation system using hiPS-CMs and gene expression analysis. hiPS-CMs were treated with 8 arrhythmogenic and 17 non-arrhythmogenic drugs at several concentrations for 24 hr to comprehensively analyze gene expression. The results showed that 19 genes were upregulated in the arrhythmogenic drug-treated cells compared with their expression levels in the non treated and non-arrhythmogenic drug-treated cells. The arrhythmogenic risks of the drugs were evaluated by scoring gene expression levels. The results indicated that arrhythmogenic risks could be inferred when cells were treated at a concentration 100 times higher than the maximum blood concentration of the drug. Thus, we succeeded in developing a system for evaluation of the arrhythmogenic potential of drugs using gene expression analysis.