Since its initial cloning in 1992, SCN5A (Nav1.5) has become known as "the" cardiac sodium channel. 1 SCN5A encodes a tetrodotoxin (TTX)-resistant channel that is responsible for the inward sodium current (I Na ), which initiates the cardiac action potential. Its RNA and protein expression dominate the sodium channel landscape in the ventricle, atrium, and specialized conduction system. Mice heterozygous for a targeted Scn5a deletion (Scn5a ϩ/Ϫ mice) have slowed conduction along with atrial and ventricular arrhythmias, whereas homozygous targeted deletion in mice is embryonic lethal. 2 In humans, pharmacological agents that block SCN5A such as flecainide, developed as antiarrhythmics, are proarrhythmic and increase mortality in patients with structural heart disease. 3 In addition, SCN5A mutations cause a potpourri of diseases that lead to sudden cardiac death including long-QT syndrome type 3 (LQT3, gain-of-function mutations that slow inactivation and increase late sodium current, I Na,L ), Brugada syndrome (BRS1, loss of function mutations that decrease peak I Na ), conduction disease, atrial fibrillation, and dilated cardiomyopathy. 4 More recently, changes in SCN5A (expression, splicing, posttranslational modifications including CaMKII phosphorylation) and/or its -subunits that decrease peak I Na or increase I Na,L have been implicated as potential contributing factors for more common types of sudden death from acquired heart diseases such as heart failure. 5-8
Articles, see p 322 and 333A number of independent lines of evidence have suggested that other sodium channels might play important roles in the heart. In the mouse, Scn5a is preferentially localized at intercalated disks, whereas Nav1.1, Nav1.3, and Nav1.6 are localized in t-tubules. 9 Consistent with this, TTX-sensitive sodium channels were shown to be responsible for 16% of the sodium channel mRNA and 8% of the peak I Na in isolated adult cardiac myocytes and were upregulated in cardiac myocytes isolated from rats with thoracic aortic bandinginduced heart failure and increased I Na,L . 10,11 SCN10A (Nav1.8) is another TTX-resistant sodium channel located adjacent to SCN5A on human chromosome 3p21-22 that was originally identified in neurons. 12,13 Scn10a mRNA is also expressed in both in isolated mouse atrial and ventricular myocytes, and Scn10a Ϫ/Ϫ mice have shorter PR intervals during ambulatory telemetry monitoring than wild-type littermates. In contrast, other investigators have shown that wild-type mice treated acutely with the Scn10a-specific blocker A-803467 have longer PR and wider QRS intervals during both ambulatory telemetry monitoring and invasive electrophysiology studies. 14 Thus, the molecular evidence favors a role for other sodium channels in general and Scn10a in particular in the rodent heart. SCN10A mRNA is also expressed in human heart tissue. 13 Unexpectedly, evidence for a role for SCN10A in human cardiac electrophysiology came from genome-wide association studies (GWAS). Using PR and/or QRS intervals as intermediate phenot...