A review of human pluripotent stem cell-derived cardiomyocytes for high-throughput drug discovery, cardiotoxicity screening, and publication standards

J Cardiovasc Transl Res. 2013 Feb;6(1):22-30. doi: 10.1007/s12265-012-9423-2. Epub 2012 Nov 15.

Abstract

Drug attrition rates have increased in past years, resulting in growing costs for the pharmaceutical industry and consumers. The reasons for this include the lack of in vitro models that correlate with clinical results and poor preclinical toxicity screening assays. The in vitro production of human cardiac progenitor cells and cardiomyocytes from human pluripotent stem cells provides an amenable source of cells for applications in drug discovery, disease modeling, regenerative medicine, and cardiotoxicity screening. In addition, the ability to derive human-induced pluripotent stem cells from somatic tissues, combined with current high-throughput screening and pharmacogenomics, may help realize the use of these cells to fulfill the potential of personalized medicine. In this review, we discuss the use of pluripotent stem cell-derived cardiomyocytes for drug discovery and cardiotoxicity screening, as well as current hurdles that must be overcome for wider clinical applications of this promising approach.

Publication types

  • Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural
  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
  • Review

MeSH terms

  • Animals
  • Biomarkers / metabolism
  • Cardiovascular Diseases / chemically induced*
  • Cardiovascular Diseases / metabolism
  • Cardiovascular Diseases / pathology
  • Cell Differentiation
  • Cell Lineage
  • Cells, Cultured
  • Drug Discovery / standards*
  • Guidelines as Topic
  • High-Throughput Screening Assays / standards*
  • Humans
  • Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells / drug effects*
  • Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells / metabolism
  • Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells / pathology
  • Myocytes, Cardiac / drug effects*
  • Myocytes, Cardiac / metabolism
  • Myocytes, Cardiac / pathology
  • Periodicals as Topic / standards*
  • Quality Control
  • Risk Assessment
  • Toxicity Tests / standards*

Substances

  • Biomarkers