A robotic system can microinject individual heart cells between beats and could help identify potential treatments for cardiac arrhythmias, study findings suggest. The robotic cell manipulator assesses the function of gap junctions, which are channels between heart cells that allow them to communicate electrically and beat in a coordinated manner.…

New research from the Brigham and Women’s Hospital investigators has provided new details on different levels of cardiac risks for patient who receive radiation therapy to treat non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). The study, published in JACC: CardioOncology, leveraged artificial intelligence (AI) to uncover how different radiation doses impact specific…

Cardurion Pharmaceuticals has raised a $260M Series B financing led by Ascenta Capital to support development of a first-in-class phosphodiesterase-9 (PDE9) inhibitor for heart failure and a Calcium/Calmodulin-dependent Protein Kinase II (CaMKII) inhibitor with “broad therapeutic potential,” according to the company. Both drug candidates are in Phase II trials. The…

A research team in Spain, reporting in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology, say they have identified five subtypes of dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM), and created the first risk stratification of disease development among symptom-free people who carry a genetic mutation that can cause it. Estimates suggest that in…

Researchers at the McMaster University, in a new meta-analysis, have found that donepezil, a medication commonly prescribed for dementia does not increase the risk of death and certain heart rhythm problems, contrary to past warnings. The research, published in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society, noted that past warnings…

Research led by The University of British Columbia shows that it is possible to diagnose long QT syndrome, an inherited heart disorder, using a combination of electrocardiography (ECG) data and artificial intelligence (AI). As reported in JAMA Cardiology, the researchers used a deep-learning based neural network to accurately diagnose long…

Cardiologists and radiation oncologists at Washington University School of Medicine have repurposed radiation therapy, a conventional approach used against cancer, to target patients with ventricular tachycardia. Heart failure, a condition affecting approximately 6.7 million American adults, is characterized by the heart’s gradual loss of its ability to supply the body…

Researchers at Northwestern University and George Washington (GW) University report in the journal Science Advances that they have developed a postage stamp-sized dissolving cardiac device that can monitor and treat heart disease in the days, weeks, and months following a cardiac event. The flexible device was designed to dissolve inside…

Results from a Phase III trial of Australian biotech Mesoblast’s mesenchymal precursor cell therapy for heart failure show improved ejection fraction and lower risk of heart attack or stroke in recipients. However, despite these signs of benefit, the study did not meet its primary endpoint, which was time to recurrent…

Genetic analysis in more than a million people has identified new risk loci for atrial fibrillation (AF), in the largest such study of cardiac arrhythmias to date. A subsequently developed polygenic risk score (PRS) was able to predict an increased risk of stroke and death from cardiovascular disease among at-risk…

Primera Therapeutics, the first launch from cell and gene therapy (CGT) accelerator Mayflower BioVentures, announced it has signed a collaborative agreement with Cellectis that will see the two companies will work to develop gene editing methods for mutations in mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) as potential in vivo therapies to treat mitochondrial…

Researchers at the Smidt Heart Institute at Cedars-Sinai have developed a polygenic risk score (PRS) that helps predict which cardiovascular disease patients are at increased risk of sudden and/or arrhythmic death. Roopinder Sandhu, M.D., associate professor of Cardiology at the Smidt Heart Institute, and colleagues eventually hope to add this…

New European recommendations stress the value of cardiac genetic testing in athletes but also outline its limitations and the importance of counseling before and afterwards. High-level exercise can lead to structural and electrical changes in the heart that can mimic inherited cardiac conditions, explain the researchers. This ‘grey zone’ can…

A number of genomic testing companies and laboratories have joined forces to launch the CardioGenomic Testing Alliance (CGTA), a collaborative group with a purpose of raising awareness and the use of genomic assays to test for a variety of cardiovascular conditions. The member companies will work together to advance the…

A study led by New York University suggests genetic variants implicated in medical conditions such as abnormal heart rhythms and seizures could be at least partly responsible for a significant percentage of sudden unexplained deaths in children between the age of 1 and 18 years. The researchers found that genetic…