Pharmaceutical agents despite their efficacy to treat disease can cause additional unwanted cardiovascular side effects. Cardiotoxicity is characterized by changes in either the function and/or structure of the myocardium. Over recent years, functional cardiotoxicity has received much attention, however morphological damage to the myocardium and/or loss of viability still requires improved detection and mechanistic insights. A human 3D cardiac microtissue containing human induced pluripotent stem cell-derived cardiomyocytes (hiPS-CMs), cardiac endothelial cells and cardiac fibroblasts was used to assess their suitability to detect drug induced changes in cardiac structure. Histology and clinical pathology confirmed these cardiac microtissues were morphologically intact, lacked a necrotic/apoptotic core and contained all relevant cell constituents. High-throughput methods to assess mitochondrial membrane potential, endoplasmic reticulum integrity and cellular viability were developed and 15 FDA approved structural cardiotoxins and 14 FDA approved non-structural cardiotoxins were evaluated. We report that cardiac microtissues provide a high-throughput experimental model that is both able to detect changes in cardiac structure at clinically relevant concentrations and provide insights into the phenotypic mechanisms of this liability.

Endothelin-1 (ET-1) is a critical autocrine and paracrine regulator of cardiac physiology and pathology. Produced locally within the myocardium in response to diverse mechanical and neurohormonal stimuli, ET-1 acutely modulates cardiac contractility. During pathological cardiovascular conditions such as ischaemia, left ventricular hypertrophy and heart failure, myocyte expression and activity of the entire ET-1 system is enhanced, allowing the peptide to both initiate and maintain maladaptive cellular responses. Both the acute and chronic effects of ET-1 are dependent on the activation of intracellular signalling pathways, regulated by the inositol-trisphosphate and diacylglycerol produced upon activation of the ETA receptor. Subsequent stimulation of protein kinases C and D, calmodulin-dependent kinase II, calcineurin and MAPKs modifies the systolic calcium transient, myofibril function and the activity of transcription factors that coordinate cellular remodelling. The precise nature of the cellular response to ET-1 is governed by the timing, localization and context of such signals, allowing the peptide to regulate both cardiomyocyte physiology and instigate disease. LINKED ARTICLESThis article is part of a themed section on Endothelin. To view the other articles in this section visit http://dx.doi.org/ 10.1111/bph.2013.168.issue-2 AbbreviationsAngII, angiotensin II; CICR, calcium-induced-calcium release; Cn, calcineurin; ECC, excitation-contraction-coupling; IICR, IP3-induced calcium release; IP3R, inositol triphosphate receptor; MyBP-C, myosin binding protein C; RyR, ryanodine receptor; TnI, troponin I IntroductionEndothelin (ET)-1, ET-2 and ET-3 are a family of cyclic 21 amino acid peptides. The peptides are encoded within three separate yet highly conserved genes located on chromosomes 6, 1 and 20 in humans respectively (Inoue et al., 1989). ET-1 is the most well characterized member of this family. The peptide was initially isolated from the culture supernatant of porcine aortic endothelial cells and identified as a proteasesensitive vasoconstrictor. It remains the most potent vasoactive substance identified to date (Yanagisawa et al., 1988), performing an important function in the regulation of vascular smooth muscle tone. ET-1 also mediates effects on other cell types. Here, we discuss the role of ET-1 in the heart. We will focus on the actions of ET-1 on cardiac muscle and describe how the ET system contributes to cardiac regulation and autoregulation during health and disease. ET-1 in the heartThroughout life, ET-1 plays key roles in many aspects of cardiac physiology and pathology. It is involved in controlling aortic arch formation during development (Kurihara et al., 1995), is required for cardiomyocyte survival and prevents myocyte loss during ageing (Zhao et al., 2006). In the adult, ET-1 modulates coronary blood flow by regulation of vascular tone. Furthermore, by acting on its receptors expressed by atrial and ventricular myocytes, the peptide modulates cardiac muscle function directly (Hirata ...

G-protein coupled receptor (GPCR) mediated activation of the MAPK signalling cascade is a key pathway in the induction of hypertrophic remodelling of the heart – a response to pathological cues including hypertension and myocardial infarction. While levels of pro-hypertrophic hormone agonists of GPCRs increase during periods of greater workload to enhance cardiac output, hypertrophy does not necessarily result. Here we investigated the relationship between the duration of exposure to the pro-hypertrophic GPCR agonist endothelin-1 (ET-1) and the induction of hypertrophic remodelling in neonatal rat ventricular myocytes (NRVM) and in the adult rat heart in vivo. Notably, a 15 min pulse of ET-1 was sufficient to induce markers of hypertrophy that were present when measured at 24 h in vivo and 48 h in vitro. The persistence of ET-1 action was insensitive to ET type A receptor (ETA receptor) antagonism with BQ123. The extended effects of ET-1 were dependent upon sustained MAPK signalling and involved persistent transcription. Inhibitors of endocytosis however conferred sensitivity upon the hypertrophic response to BQ123, suggesting that endocytosis of ETA receptors following ligand binding preserves their active state by protection against antagonist. Contrastingly, α1 adrenergic-induced hypertrophic responses required the continued presence of agonist and were sensitive to antagonist. These studies shed new light on strategies to pharmacologically intervene in the action of different pro-hypertrophic mediators.

Cardiotoxicity is a common cause of attrition in preclinical and clinical drug development. Current in vitro approaches have two main limitations, they either are limited to low throughput methods not amendable to drug discovery or lack the physiological responses to allow an integrated risk assessment. A human 3D cardiac microtissue containing human-induced pluripotent stem cell-derived cardiomyocytes (hiPS-CMs), cardiac endothelial cells and cardiac fibroblast were used to assess their suitability to detect drug induced changes in cardiomyocyte contraction. These cardiac microtissues, have a uniform size, spontaneously beat, lack a hypoxic core, and contain key markers of each cell type. Application of field stimulation and measurement of cardiac contraction confirm cardiac microtissues to be a suitable model to investigate drug-induced changes in cardiomyocyte contractility. Using a bespoke image acquisition work flow and optical flow analysis method to test 29 inotroptic and 13 non-inotroptic compounds in vivo We report that cardiac microtissues provide a high-throughput experimental model that is both able to detect changes in cardiac contraction with a sensitivity and specificity of 80 and 91%, respectively, and provide insight into the direction of the inotropic response. Allowing improved in vitro cardiac contractility risk assessment. Moreover, our data provide evidence of the detection of this liability at therapeutically relevant concentrations with a throughput amenable to drug discovery.

Components of the type II CRISPR–Cas complex in bacteria have been used successfully in eukaryotic cells to facilitate rapid and accurate cell line engineering, animal model generation and functional genomic screens. Such developments are providing new opportunities for drug target identification and validation, particularly with the application of pooled genetic screening. As CRISPR–Cas is a relatively new genetic screening tool, it is important to assess its functionality in a number of different cell lines and to analyse potential improvements that might increase the sensitivity of a given screen. To examine critical aspects of screening quality, we constructed ultra-complex libraries containing sgRNA sequences targeting a collection of essential genes. We examined the performance of screening in both haploid and hypotriploid cell lines, using two alternative guide design algorithms and two tracrRNA variants in a time-resolved analysis. Our data indicate that a simple adaptation of the tracrRNA substantially improves the robustness of guide loss during a screen. This modification minimises the requirement for high numbers of sgRNAs targeting each gene, increasing hit scoring and creating a powerful new platform for successful screening.