Desired mechanisms of drugs for ventricular arrhythmia: Class III antiarrhythmic agents

The roles of ion channels in an inherited heart disease: molecular genetics of the long QT syndrome

“…The latter drug action is referred to as 'acquired LQTS' because it is acquired as a function of drug treatment. Agents that block K + channels in general [130,131], and selectively block the rapidly-activating component of cardiac delayed rectifier K + channel current (I~) in particular, have been associated with acquired LQTS [132,133]. The fact that only segments of the population are at risk for acquired LQTS suggest a genetic predisposition toward excessive drug response, and the link to a genetic defect in the gene encoding I~ was specifically suggested by Sanguinetti et al [2] who first reported the functional expression of HERG and showed that it is the gene that encodes cardiac IKr.…”