Human stem cell derived cardiomyocytes (hESC-CM) provide a potential model for development of improved assays for pre-clinical predictive drug safety screening. We have used multi-electrode array (MEA) analysis of hESC-CM to generate multi-parameter data to profile drug impact on cardiomyocyte electrophysiology using a panel of 21 compounds active against key cardiac ion channels. Our study is the first to apply multi-parameter phenotypic profiling and clustering techniques commonly used for high-content imaging and microarray data to the analysis of electrophysiology data obtained by MEA analysis. Our data show good correlations with previous studies in stem cell derived cardiomyocytes and demonstrate improved specificity in compound risk assignment over convention single-parametric approaches. These analyses indicate great potential for multi-parameter MEA data acquired from hESC-CM to enable drug electrophysiological liabilities to be assessed in pre-clinical cardiotoxicity assays, facilitating informed decision making and liability management at the optimum point in drug development.

Recent in vitro cardiac safety studies demonstrate the ability of human induced pluripotent stem cell-derived cardiomyocytes (hiPSC-CMs) to detect electrophysiologic effects of drugs. However, variability contributed by unique approaches, procedures, cell lines, and reagents across laboratories makes comparisons of results difficult, leading to uncertainty about the role of hiPSC-CMs in defining proarrhythmic risk in drug discovery and regulatory submissions. A blinded pilot study was conducted to evaluate the electrophysiologic effects of 8 well-characterized drugs on 4 cardiomyocyte lines using a standardized protocol across 3 microelectrode array platforms (18 individual studies). Drugs were selected to define assay sensitivity of prominent repolarizing currents (E-4031 for IKr, JNJ303 for IKs) and depolarizing currents (nifedipine for ICaL, mexiletine for INa) as well as drugs affecting multichannel block (flecainide, moxifloxacin, quinidine, and ranolazine). Inclusion criteria for final analysis was based on demonstrated sensitivity to IKr block (20% prolongation with E-4031) and L-type calcium current block (20% shortening with nifedipine). Despite differences in baseline characteristics across cardiomyocyte lines, multiple sites, and instrument platforms, 10 of 18 studies demonstrated adequate sensitivity to IKr block with E-4031 and ICaL block with nifedipine for inclusion in the final analysis. Concentration-dependent effects on repolarization were observed with this qualified data set consistent with known ionic mechanisms of single and multichannel blocking drugs. hiPSC-CMs can detect repolarization effects elicited by single and multichannel blocking drugs after defining pharmacologic sensitivity to IKr and ICaL block, supporting further validation efforts using hiPSC-CMs for cardiac safety studies.

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The cardiac action potential (AP) is vital for understanding healthy and diseased cardiac biology and drug safety testing. However, techniques for high throughput cardiac AP measurements have been limited. Here, we introduce a novel technique for reliably increasing the coupling of cardiomyocyte syncytium to planar multiwell microelectrode arrays, resulting in a stable, label-free local extracellular action potential (LEAP). We characterized the reliability and stability of LEAP, its relationship to the field potential, and its efficacy for quantifying AP morphology of human induced pluripotent stem cell derived and primary rodent cardiomyocytes. Rise time, action potential duration, beat period, and triangulation were used to quantify compound responses and AP morphology changes induced by genetic modification. LEAP is the first high throughput, non-invasive, label-free, stable method to capture AP morphology from an intact cardiomyocyte syncytium. LEAP can accelerate our understanding of stem cell models, while improving the automation and accuracy of drug testing.

More relevant and reliable preclinical cardiotoxicity tests are required to improve drug safety and reduce the cost of drug development. Current in vitro testing strategies predominantly take the form of functional assays to predict the potential for drug-induced ECG abnormalities in vivo. Cardiotoxicity can also be structural in nature, so a full and efficient assessment of cardiac liabilities for new chemical entities should account for both these phenomena. As well as providing a more appropriate nonclinical model for in vitro cardiotoxicity testing, human stem cell-derived cardiomyocytes offer an integrated system to study drug impact on cardiomyocyte structure as well as function. Employing human embryonic stem cell-derived cardiacmyocytes (hESC-CMs) on 3 assay platforms with complementary insights into cardiac biology (multielectrode array assay, electrophysiology; impedance assay, cell movement/beating; and high content analysis assay, subcellular structure) we profiled a panel of 13 drugs with well characterized cardiac liabilities (Amiodarone, Aspirin, Astemizole, Axitinib, AZT, Bepridil, Doxorubicin, E-4031, Mexiletine, Rosiglitazone, Sunitinib, Sibutramine, and Verapamil). Our data show good correlations with previous studies and reported clinical observations. Using multiparameter phenotypic profiling techniques we demonstrate the dynamic relationship that exists between functional and structural toxicity, and the benefits of this more holistic approach to risk assessment. We conclude by showing for the first time how the advent of transparent MEA plate technology enables functional and structural cardiotoxic responses to be recorded from the same cell population. This approach more directly links changes in morphology of the hESC-CMs with recorded electrophysiology signatures, offering even greater insight into the wide range of potential drug impacts on cardiac physiology, with a throughput that is more amenable to early drug discovery.