Scientists at The Ohio State University have made an important discovery that may help save the lives of people with rare and serious heart rhythm problems.
These conditions, known as calmodulinopathies, are caused by changes in a small protein called calmodulin. This protein helps keep the heart beating in a steady and healthy way.
Calmodulin plays a key role in managing how two important molecules—sodium and calcium—move in and out of heart muscle cells. These molecules create the electrical signals that control the heartbeat.
When everything works properly, calmodulin helps the heart beat smoothly. Doctors can check this electrical activity using a test called an electrocardiogram, or ECG.
But sometimes, calmodulin doesn’t work as it should. This happens when there is a mutation, or change, in the calmodulin protein. These changes can cause serious problems with the heart’s rhythm.
Until now, doctors and scientists didn’t fully understand how these changes led to such dangerous heart conditions. But the new study from Ohio State is helping to explain the problem.
The researchers focused on a specific mutation of calmodulin, called D96V-CaM. They used an animal model to study how this mutated protein affects the heart. What they found was that the mutation changes the way sodium flows through special channels in heart cells.
This faulty sodium flow leads to an abnormal release of calcium inside the cells. Together, this causes the heart to beat irregularly, which can be very dangerous.
Their findings were published in the Journal of Clinical Investigation and offer new hope for treating these conditions. One of the biggest discoveries was that the mutated calmodulin affects only a certain type of sodium channel in the heart, called NaV1.6. It does not affect another common channel, NaV1.5. This shows that the problem is very specific.
Dr. Przemysław Radwanski, the lead scientist on the project, says this new understanding could help doctors create better treatments.
Since some medicines already work on sodium channels, researchers think these drugs might be adjusted to help patients with calmodulinopathies. This gives hope to people who have had very few treatment options before.
The discovery may also help people with other heart conditions that involve sodium channel problems. If scientists can understand how calmodulin mutations affect the heart, they may be able to stop dangerous heart rhythms before they start.
In the future, this research might lead to new treatments that fix the sodium flow problems caused by faulty calmodulin. For patients living with life-threatening heart rhythm disorders, this could be a major step toward better and safer therapies.
This study is a big step forward in helping people with rare but serious heart conditions. As researchers continue to explore calmodulin and its role in the heart, their goal is to stop abnormal heart rhythms and protect people from sudden and deadly heart events.
If you care about heart health, please read studies about how eating eggs can help reduce heart disease risk, and Vitamin K2 could help reduce heart disease risk.
For more information about heart health, please see recent studies about how to remove plaques that cause heart attacks, and results showing a new way to prevent heart attacks, strokes.
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