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EMBARGOED UNTIL 2 PM
E.D.T APRIL 8, 2004
NEW DRUG PREVENTS ARRHYTHMIAS THAT CAUSE
SUDDEN CARDIAC
DEATH
New York,
NY, April 8, 2004— Cardiac researchers at Columbia University
Medical Center
have developed and tested a unique arrhythmia drug that could prevent
the
sudden death of millions of people with heart failure as well as those
with an
inherited heart disorder exacerbated by exercise. The drug represents
one of
the first molecular-based therapies for heart failure and avoids the
toxicity
of current treatments.
Results of the
initial animal test, published in the April 9 issue of Science,
showed the drug completely prevents sudden death from
arrhythmia in mice that have the same heart defect as people with heart
failure.
“The drug will be
an incredible advance if it works in patients,” says Andrew Marks,
M.D.,
chairman of physiology and cellular biophysics, director of the Center
for
Molecular Cardiology at CUMC, and leader of the new study. “It
represents the
beginning of an era when drugs will directly fix the molecular defects
in heart
failure. While our drug is one of the first molecular-based therapies
for heart
failure and arrhythmias, it won't be the last.”
Heart failure is
not a heart attack, but a weakening over years of the heart’s ability
to pump
blood. About 50 percent of the 4.6 million patients with heart failure
in the
United States will die from a type of arrhythmia that produces a fast
and
erratic beating of the heart. But medications that prevent arrhythmia
are so
toxic that most have been removed from the market. Other options,
defibrillators and heart transplants, are highly invasive and cost
hundreds of
thousands of dollars.
In the new study,
the experimental drug was tested in mice that had the same molecular
defect as
people with heart failure and some otherwise healthy people who develop
fatal
arrhythmias during exercise. The defect causes a tiny channel in heart
muscle
to leak calcium ions into heart cells. The leak can trigger a fatal
arrhythmia
at any time in heart failure patients or during exercise in people with
an
inherited defect in the channel.
All 10 mice that
received the drug thrived and never developed an arrhythmia, while 8
out of 9
untreated mice became arrhythmic and died.
The new drug,
developed by Dr. Marks, prevents arrhythmia and sudden death by
patching the
leak in the heart’s calcium channel and is based on Dr. Marks’ 15 years
of
research. Work in Dr. Marks’ lab elucidated how the channel works to
make the
heart beat, and in the past few years, his lab has revealed the
channel’s
connection to heart failure and fatal arrhythmia.
The experimental
drug also has great potential in preventing the relentless
deterioration of the
heart during heart failure, because the leak contributes to the
decline.
“By
fixing the leak, you could potentially slow the progression of heart
failure
and allow patients to live their lives more normally, not in and out of
hospitals,” Dr. Marks says. “Our idea is to take a pill instead of
spending
hundreds of thousands of dollars on implants and heart transplants.”
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*Located in New York City, Columbia University Medical
Center provides
international leadership in basic and clinical research, medical
education,
and health care. The medical center includes the dedicated work of many
physicians, scientists, and other health professionals from the College
of Physicians & Surgeons, the School of Dental & Oral Surgery,
the School of Nursing, the Mailman School of Public Health, the
biomedical
departments of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, and allied
research
centers and institutions. Columbia University physicians and scientists
achieved some of the 20th century's most significant medical
breakthroughs,
including the first blood test for cancer, the first medical use of the
laser, and the first successful transfer of genes from one cell to
another.
This pioneering tradition continues today through 24 departments and
several
specialized research centers and institutes acclaimed for work in
neuroscience
and neurology, emerging infectious diseases, diabetes, community
health,
and many other areas of expertise.
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