Development and validation of dual-cardiotoxicity evaluation method based on analysis of field potential and contractile force of human iPSC-derived cardiomyocytes / multielectrode assay platform

Abstract A recent in vitro cardiovascular safety pharmacology test uses cardiomyocytes derived from human induced pluripotent stem cells (hiPSCs) to overcome the limitations of the classical test systems, such as species differences and local channel analysis. The Comprehensive in vitro Proarrhythmia Assay (CiPA) is a new proarrhythmia screening paradigm proposed by a CiPA steering expert group, which essentially requires iPSCs derived cardiomyocyte-based electrophysiological evaluation technology. Moreover, the measurement of the contractile force is also emerging as an important parameter to recapitulate non-proarrhythmic cardiotoxicity. Therefore, we constructed an multielectrode assay (MEA) evaluation method that can measure the electrophysiological changes with 6 reference drugs in hiPSC-derived cardiomyocytes. Subsequently, it was confirmed that the electrophysiological were changed in accordance with the mechanism of action of the drugs. Furthermore, based on the multi-probe impedance, we confirmed the decrease in contractile force due to treatment with drugs, and developed a platform to evaluate cardiotoxicity according to drugs along with field potential changes. Our excitation–contraction coupling cardiotoxicity assessment is considered to be more supportive in cardiac safety studies on pharmacologic sensitivity by complementing each assessment parameter.