Heart disease remains the leading cause of death in the United States and other developed countries. Half of these deaths occur suddenly, typically from ventricular tachyarrhythmias that arise in the setting of acute ischemia, acquired heart disease or inherited syndromes including channelopathies and cardiomyopathies. The specialized cardiac conduction system (CCS) comprises a heterogeneous network of cells that orchestrate the initiation and propagation of a wave of electrical excitation throughout the myocardium. Purkinje cells comprise the most distal component of the CCS and substantial, but indirect experimental data has accumulated supporting the concept that Purkinje cells play a key mechanistic role triggering a broad range of life-threatening ventricular arrhythmias. However, major gaps in our understanding of Purkinje cell biology have prevented this realization from being translated into novel anti-arrhythmic strategies. Through our recent identification of contactin-2, a novel cell adhesion molecule expressed in the conduction system, we have established new tools to identify, isolate and characterize murine Purkinje cells. Using these tools, we propose a series of studies to investigate contactin-2 dependent regulation of Purkinje network development, the regulation of cardiac electrophysiology by contactin-2 in normal and diseased hearts, and contactin-2 dependent mechanisms regulating pathologic remodeling in Purkinje cells.

Public Health Relevance

Heart disease is the leading cause of death in the United States and other developed countries and almost half of these deaths occur suddenly from heart rhythm abnormalities. Our research is directed toward understanding the mechanisms responsible for these lethal arrhythmias and identifying potential new therapeutic targets.

Agency
National Institute of Health (NIH)
Institute
National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI)
Type
Research Project (R01)
Project #
5R01HL105983-04
Application #
8644864
Study Section
Special Emphasis Panel (ZRG1)
Program Officer
Lathrop, David A
Project Start
2011-04-01
Project End
2016-06-30
Budget Start
2014-12-01
Budget End
2016-06-30
Support Year
4
Fiscal Year
2015
Total Cost
Indirect Cost
Name
New York University
Department
Internal Medicine/Medicine
Type
Schools of Medicine
DUNS #
121911077
City
New York
State
NY
Country
United States
Zip Code
10016
Park, David S; Fishman, Glenn I (2018) SCN5A: the greatest HITS collection. J Clin Invest 128:913-915
Shekhar, Akshay; Lin, Xianming; Lin, Bin et al. (2018) ETV1 activates a rapid conduction transcriptional program in rodent and human cardiomyocytes. Sci Rep 8:9944
Fishman, Glenn I (2017) Drug-Induced Arrhythmias, Precision Medicine, and Small Data. Circ Arrhythm Electrophysiol 10:
Park, David S; Fishman, Glenn I (2017) Development and Function of the Cardiac Conduction System in Health and Disease. J Cardiovasc Dev Dis 4:
Park, David S; Shekhar, Akshay; Marra, Christopher et al. (2016) Fhf2 gene deletion causes temperature-sensitive cardiac conduction failure. Nat Commun 7:12966
Shekhar, Akshay; Lin, Xianming; Liu, Fang-Yu et al. (2016) Transcription factor ETV1 is essential for rapid conduction in the heart. J Clin Invest 126:4444-4459
Tsai, Su-Yi; Maass, Karen; Lu, Jia et al. (2015) Efficient Generation of Cardiac Purkinje Cells from ESCs by Activating cAMP Signaling. Stem Cell Reports 4:1089-102
Lin, Xianming; O'Malley, Heather; Chen, Chunling et al. (2015) Scn1b deletion leads to increased tetrodotoxin-sensitive sodium current, altered intracellular calcium homeostasis and arrhythmias in murine hearts. J Physiol 593:1389-407
Park, David S; Cerrone, Marina; Morley, Gregory et al. (2015) Genetically engineered SCN5A mutant pig hearts exhibit conduction defects and arrhythmias. J Clin Invest 125:403-12
Maass, Karen; Shekhar, Akshay; Lu, Jia et al. (2015) Isolation and characterization of embryonic stem cell-derived cardiac Purkinje cells. Stem Cells 33:1102-12

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