Cardiotoxicity is considered to be a spectrum of drug-induced adverse effects on cardiovascular system, involving both direct damage to the heart and indirect effects due to alteration of haemodynamic environment or thrombotic events. A large number of reviews have categorized the drug-induced cardiotoxicity from a physiological perspective: 1) direct damage to mitochondria, 2) disruption of the kinase signaling pathways and 3) inhibition of cardiac ion channels.
Cardiac safety is one of the leading causes of compound attrition in the pharmaceutical industry, accounting for 23%-28% of the safety-related withdrawals of FDA-approved drugs from the market. Current approaches for pre-clinical cardio-physiologic evaluations of chemicals rely almost entirely on large animal models, which have significant limitations in terms of cost and complexity of the studies. Hence, there is an urgent need to develop comprehensive, multi-parametric screening strategies to improve the predictability of cardiotoxic effects. Creative Bioarray provides both standard and novel approaches for assessing cardiotoxicity. Our cardiac safety assessments focus on the area of single ion channel panel, comprehensive in vitro proarrhythmia (CiPA), and 3D microtissue models.