Researchers in the US develop computer model that predicts how drugs affect heart rhythm

Researchers have developed a computer model to screen drugs for unintended cardiac side effects, especially arrhythmia risk. Heart arrhythmia, also known as irregular heartbeat or cardiac dysrhythmia, is a group of conditions where the heartbeat is irregular, too slow, or too fast. "One main reason for a drug being removed from the market is potentially life-threatening arrhythmias. Even drugs developed to treat arrhythmia have ended up actually causing them," said study researcher Colleen E Clancy, Professor at the University of California-Davis in the US. The problem, according to Clancy, is that there is no easy way to preview how a drug interacts with hERG-encoded potassium channels essential to normal heart rhythm. "So far there has been no surefire way to determine which drugs will be therapeutic and which will harmful," Clancy said.