HERG and KvLQT1/IsK, the Cardiac K+ Channels Involved in Long QT Syndromes, Are Targets for Calcium Channel Blockers
- Institut de Pharmacologie Moléculaire et Cellulaire, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Sophia Antipolis, F-06560 Valbonne, France
Abstract
We examined the effects of the calcium channel blockers nitrendipine, diltiazem, verapamil, bepridil, and mibefradil on the cloned HERG and KvLQT1/IsK K+ channels. These channels generate the rapid and slow components of the cardiac delayed rectifier K+current, and mutations can affect them, which leads to long QT syndromes. When expressed in transfected COS cells, HERG is blocked in a concentration-dependent manner by bepridil (EC50 = 0.55 μm), verapamil (EC50 = 0.83 μm), and mibefradil (EC50 = 1.43 μm), whereas nitrendipine and diltiazem have negligible effects. Steady state activation and inactivation parameters are shifted to more negative values in the presence of the blockers. Similarly, KvLQT1/IsK is inhibited by bepridil (EC50 = 10.0 μm) and mibefradil (EC50 = 11.8 μm), while being insensitive to nitrendipine, diltiazem, or verapamil. These results demonstrate that both cloned K+channels HERG and KvLQT1/IsK, which represent together the cardiac delayed rectifier K+ current, are sensitive targets to calcium channel blockers. This work may help in understanding the mechanisms of action of verapamil in certain ventricular tachycardia, as well as some of the deleterious adverse cardiac events associated with bepridil.
Footnotes
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Send reprint requests to: Prof. Michel Lazdunski, Institut de Pharmacologie Moléculaire et Cellulaire, CNRS, 660 route des Lucioles, Sophia Antipolis, F-06560 Valbonne, France. E-mail:ipmc{at}ipmc.cnrs.fr
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This work was supported by the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique. C.C. is a recipient of a Grant from the Association Française contre les Myopathies.
- Abbreviations:
- IK
- cardiac delayed rectifier K+ current
- IKr
- rapidly activating component of cardiac delayed rectifier K+ current
- IKs,slowly activating component of cardiac delayed rectifier K+current
- EGTA, ethylene glycol bis(β-aminoethyl ether)-N,N,N′,N′-tetraacetic acid
- HEPES
- 4-(2-hydroxyethyl)-1-piperazineethanesulfonic acid
- CCB
- calcium channel blocker
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- Received April 6, 1998.
- Accepted June 17, 1998.
- The American Society for Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics
