UC Davis Researchers Develop Computer Model For Testing Heart-Disease Drugs
Posted Sep 01 2011 5:20pm
UC Davis researchers have developed an accurate computer model to test the effects of medications for arrhythmia, or abnormal heart rhythm, before they are used in patients.
The new tool — described in the Aug. 31 issue of the journal Science Translational Medicine — will help scientists screen anti-arrhythmia medications early in the drug-development pipeline and eventually guide physicians in prescribing those interventions to patients who could benefit the most.
“Drug development for arrhythmia has failed because it is difficult to anticipate how drugs will alter the heart’s intricate electrical behavior prior to clinical trials,” said Clancy, an associate professor of pharmacology at UC Davis and senior author of the study. “We developed a novel approach to solve this problem — a computational framework for making early predictions about the effects of medications on cardiac rhythms.”
UC Davis researchers have developed an accurate computer model to test the effects of medications for arrhythmia, or abnormal heart rhythm, before they are used in patients.
The new tool — described in the Aug. 31 issue of the journal Science Translational Medicine — will help scientists screen anti-arrhythmia medications early in the drug-development pipeline and eventually guide physicians in prescribing those interventions to patients who could benefit the most.
“Drug development for arrhythmia has failed because it is difficult to anticipate how drugs will alter the heart’s intricate electrical behavior prior to clinical trials,” said Clancy, an associate professor of pharmacology at UC Davis and senior author of the study. “We developed a novel approach to solve this problem — a computational framework for making early predictions about the effects of medications on cardiac rhythms.”