Nanomagneto-assisted diagnosis and therapy of cardiac arrhythmias

• Applicant: Professor Dr. Philipp Sasse
• Subject Area: Pharmacology
• Term: from 2012 to 2016
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 40403621

Aim of this proposal is to establish novel strategies using magnetic nanoparticles for the analysis and treatment of cardiac arrhythmias. A severe form of congenital or drug-induced tachycardic arrhythmias is the long QT syndrome that can be analyzed using patient-specific induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells. We will generate virus-free iPS cells from fibroblasts using transfer of RNA and will improve the efficiency with the help magnetic nanoparticles and magnetic fields. Phenotype analysis and pharmacological testing of iPS derived cardiomyocytes will be performed with a novel semi-automatic electrophysiologal analysis system on magnetically labeled cardiomyocytes. Bradycardic arrhythmias are mostly due to a dysfunction of the sinoatrial- or atrio-ventricular nodes and currently treated by implantation of electrical pacemaker devices. Because these devices have technical and physiological limitations, we aim to generate optical and biological pacemakers using of magnetic nanoparticle-aided gene transfer of optogenetic proteins or ion channels.

• DFG Programme: Research Units
• Subproject of: FOR 917: Nanoparticle-based Delivery of Innovative Therapies (NanoTarget)
• Participating Person: Professor Dr. Bernd Fleischmann