AF is the most common arrhythmia encountered in medical practice. It has reached epidemic proportions in the United States with over 2.5 million Americans affected. Projections indicate that the prevalence will increase to 15 million by the year 2050.
Because of the rapid progression of the disease and its socioeconomic impact, safe and effective pharmacological treatment of AF is considered to be one of the greatest unmet medical needs facing our society.
According to Dr. Charles Antzelevitch, senior author and MMRL executive director and director research, “The greatest challenge of AF therapy is to prevent the arrhythmia from recurring.
As a general rule, patients who do not take antiarrhythmic medication or have ablation procedures have a 75% chance of returning to AF within one year, although this often depends on the duration and frequency of previous episode(s).
It is well established that AF begets AF such that the longer one is in AF, the more difficult it is to remain free of the arrhythmia. One of the most effective agents in preventing recurrence of AF is amiodarone. However, this agent has the potential to cause some very serious extra-cardiac and cardiac adverse effects.
Most drug treatments used today have the potential to cause serious side-effects, in many cases due to their influence on the electrical activity in the ventricles of the heart.
Consequently, much of the focus in recent years has been on development of atrial-selective antiarrhythmic agents, which specifically target the upper chambers of the heart.
” The concept of atrial-selective sodium channel blockers was introduced by MMRL investigators in 2007 after discovering that sodium channels in atrial and ventricular cells are very different. The combination of ranolazine and dronedarone takes advantage of these distinctions, thus providing potent effects to stop AF in the atria with little to no effect on the ventricles of the heart.
“These are exciting results in a field with limited treatment options,” said Dr. Luiz Belardinelli, Senior Vice President, Cardiovascular Therapeutics, Gilead Sciences. “We look forward to further exploring the concept of combination therapy for atrial fibrillation.”
Ronald Kamp, Director of Development and Communications at MMRL said, “This is another fine example of the pioneering work of investigators at the MMRL.” It is also noteworthy that MMRL scientists are diligently studying the genetic basis for atrial fibrillation to assess the extent to which individuals are genetically predisposed to develop AF and other arrhythmias.”
Source: Masonic Medical Research Laboratory