Direct measurements of a cardiac cycle, one cell at the time
Thanks to an original technique developed in Amsterdam, it is now possible to monitor the exact behavior of an isolated heart cell throughout the entire cardiac cycle. This approach paves the way for a whole new class of drug tests and physiological studies.
Before this invention, experiments on isolated heart cells were limited to the measurement of the maximum force that the muscle can develop during the heart cycle. The development of new pharmaceutical products could thus only rely on this single parameter, neglecting how well the heart relaxes during the resting phase and how well it fills up again. To go beyond this limitation, the Dutch team has introduced a new sensor that, attached to a single isolated heart cell, allows one to measure, in vitro, the force exerted by the cell during the entire cycle. Importantly, measurements can be taken under the precise same conditions that are found in the living organ.
Testing drugs
The new system stems from the collaboration of industry based and academic researchers, who combined an existing product of the company Ionoptix with a technology that was pioneered in Amsterdam. It was brought to market by a combined development effort of the Dutch startup Optics11 and Ionoptix. "This device can play a pivotal role in testing drugs in preclinical studies, in that delicate phase that comes before a new pharmaceutical product is tested in humans", says Michiel Helmes, who works at the Department of Physiology of the VU Medical Center and Ionoptix.
Jolanda van de Velden, Professor of Physiology at the Institute for Cardiovascular Research at the VU Medical Center, and FOM workgroupleader Davide Iannuzzi, Professor of Physics of the LaserLab Institute at the VU University Amsterdam, are the first in the world to publish a scientific result obtained with this new method. Van der Velden: "This brings research into heart disease a step forward. It is an example of a fruitful collaboration between academy and industry." For Iannuzzi, who has pioneered the technology at the heart of the experiment and has co-founded Optics11: "Finally, almost eleven years after the first test, today we are able to put our technology into the hands of researchers who will use it to find new ways of curing life threatening conditions. It is a very rewarding achievement for all of us and a well-deserved payoff for all the people who have trusted us."
FOM
Optics11 develops technology for very small optomechanical sensors. In April 2011 FOM awarded Iannuzzi a valorisation grant. By means of special valorisation projects FOM encourages the utilisation of knowledge from the scientific research it funds within the university workgroups.
This research is also connected to the FOM Programme 'Mechanosensing and mechanotransduction by cells'.
More information
Ionoptix
Optics11
Article in Cardiovascular Research