J.-P. Valentin

An introduction to QT interval prolongation and non-clinical approaches to assessing and reducing risk

Owing to its association with Torsades de Pointes, drug‐induced QT interval prolongation has been and remains a significant hurdle to the development of safe, effective medicines. Genetic and pharmacological evidence highlighting the pivotal role the human ether‐a‐go‐go‐related gene (hERG) channel was a critical step in understanding how to start addressing this issue. It led to the development of hERG assays with the rapid throughput needed for the short timescales required in early drug discovery. The resulting volume of hERG data has fostered in silico models to help chemists design compounds with reduced hERG potency. In early drug discovery, a pragmatic approach based on exceeding a given potency value has been required to decide when a compound is likely to carry a low QT risk, to support its progression to late‐stage discovery. At this point, the in vivo efficacy and metabolism characteristics of the potential drug are generally defined, as well its safety profile, which includes usually a dog study to assess QT interval prolongation risk. The hERG and in vivo QT data, combined with the likely indication and the estimated free drug level for efficacy, are put together to assess the risk that the potential drug will prolong QT in man. Further data may be required to refine the risk assessment before making the major investment decisions for full development. The non‐clinical data are essential to inform decisions about compound progression and to optimize the design of clinical QT studies.

On the relationship between block of the cardiac Na+ channel and drug-induced prolongation of the QRS complex

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE Inhibition of the human cardiac Na+ channel (hNav1.5) can prolong the QRS complex and has been associated with increased mortality in patients with underlying cardiovascular disease. The safety implications of blocking hNav1.5 channels suggest the need to test for this activity early in drug discovery in order to design out any potential liability. However, interpretation of hNav1.5 blocking potency requires knowledge of how hNav1.5 block translates into prolongation of the QRS complex.

Strategies to reduce the risk of drug‐induced QT interval prolongation: a pharmaceutical company perspective

Drug‐induced prolongation of the QT interval is having a significant impact on the ability of the pharmaceutical industry to develop new drugs. The development implications for a compound causing a significant effect in the ‘Thorough QT/QTc Study’—as defined in the clinical regulatory guidance (ICH E14)—are substantial. In view of this, and the fact that QT interval prolongation is linked to direct inhibition of the hERG channel, in the early stages of drug discovery the focus is on testing for and screening out hERG activity. This has led to understanding of how to produce low potency hERG blockers whilst retaining desirable properties. Despite this, a number of factors mean that when an integrated risk assessment is generated towards the end of the discovery phase (by conducting at least an in vivo QT assessment) a QT interval prolongation risk is still often apparent; inhibition of hERG channel trafficking and partitioning into cardiac tissue are just two confounding factors. However, emerging information suggests that hERG safety margins have high predictive value and that when hERG and in vivo non‐clinical data are combined, their predictive value to man, whilst not perfect, is >80%. Although understanding the anomalies is important and is being addressed, of greater importance is developing a better understanding of TdP, with the aim of being able to predict TdP rather than using an imperfect surrogate marker (QT interval prolongation). Without an understanding of how to predict TdP risk, high‐benefit drugs for serious indications may never be marketed.

Comparison of electrocardiographic analysis for risk of QT interval prolongation using safety pharmacology and toxicological studies

Testing for possible cardiovascular side effects of new drugs has been an essential part of drug development for years. A more detailed analysis of the electrocardiogram (ECG) to detect effects on ventricular repolarization (effects on the QT interval), as a marker for possible proarrhythmic potential has been added to that evaluation in recent years. State-of-the art evaluation of drug-induced effects on the QT interval have evolved, but due to the complexity of the assessment, the trend in safety pharmacology studies has been to collect large numbers of high quality ECGs to allow for a robust assessment including the influence of heart rate on the QT interval apart from possible drug-induced effects. Since an assessment of the ECG is often included in toxicological studies, one can consider making such an assessment using ECG data from routine toxicological studies. This review summarizes various aspects of both safety pharmacology and toxicology studies with regards to their impact on the quality and quantity of ECG data that one can reasonably derive. We conclude that ECG data from toxicological studies can offer complementary ECG data that can strengthen a risk assessment. However, for the great majority of standard toxicity studies conducted, the ECG data collected do not permit an adequate assessment of drug-induced effects on the QT interval with the sensitivity expected from the ICH S7B guidelines. Furthermore, sponsors should be discouraged from performing any analyses on low quality ECGs to avoid generating misleading data. Substantial improvements in ECG quality and quantity are available, thereby making a QT interval assessment within the context of a standard toxicological study feasible, but these methods may require a larger commitment of resources from the sponsor. From the viewpoint of risk mitigation and limiting the attrition of promising new therapies, a commitment of resources to insure ECG data quality in either toxicology or safety pharmacology studies may be well justified.

International Life Sciences Institute (Health and Environmental Sciences Institute, HESI) initiative on moving towards better predictors of drug-induced torsades de pointes

Knowledge of the cardiac safety of emerging new drugs is an important aspect of assuring the expeditious advancement of the best candidates targeted at unmet medical needs while also assuring the safety of clinical trial subjects or patients. Present methodologies for assessing drug‐induced torsades de pointes (TdP) are woefully inadequate in terms of their specificity to select pharmaceutical agents, which are human arrhythmia toxicants. Thus, the critical challenge in the pharmaceutical industry today is to identify experimental models, composite strategies, or biomarkers of cardiac risk that can distinguish a drug, which prolongs cardiac ventricular repolarization, but is not proarrhythmic, from one that prolongs the QT interval and leads to TdP. To that end, the HESI Proarrhythmia Models Project Committee recognized that there was little practical understanding of the relationship between drug effects on cardiac ventricular repolarization and the rare clinical event of TdP. It was on that basis that a workshop was convened in Virginia, USA at which four topics were introduced by invited subject matter experts in the following fields: Molecular and Cellular Biology Underlying TdP, Dynamics of Periodicity, Models of TdP Proarrhythmia, and Key Considerations for Demonstrating Utility of Pre‐Clinical Models. Contained in this special issue of the British Journal of Pharmacology are reports from each of the presenters that set out the background and key areas of discussion in each of these topic areas. Based on this information, the scientific community is encouraged to consider the ideas advanced in this workshop and to contribute to these important areas of investigations over the next several years.

Moving towards better predictors of drug‐induced torsades de pointes

Drug‐induced torsades de pointes (TdP) remains a significant public health concern that has challenged scientists who have the responsibility of advancing new medicines through development to the patient, while assuring public safety. As a result, from the point of discovering a new molecule to the time of its registration, significant efforts are made to recognize potential liabilities, including the potential for TdP. With this background, the ILSI (HESI) Proarrhythmia Models Project Committee recognized that there was little practical understanding of the relationship between drug effects on cardiac ventricular repolarization and the rare clinical event of TdP. A workshop was therefore convened at which four topics were considered including: Molecular and Cellular Biology Underlying TdP, Dynamics of Periodicity, Models of TdP Proarrhythmia and Key Considerations for Demonstrating Utility of Pre‐Clinical Models. The series of publications in this special edition has established the background, areas of debate and those that deserve scientific pursuit. This is intented to encourage the research community to contribute to these important areas of investigation in advancing the science and our understanding of drug‐induced proarrhythmia.

Predicting changes in cardiac myocyte contractility during early drug discovery with in vitro assays

Cardiovascular-related adverse drug effects are a major concern for the pharmaceutical industry. Activity of an investigational drug at the L-type calcium channel could manifest in a number of ways, including changes in cardiac contractility. The aim of this study was to define which of the two assay technologies - radioligand-binding or automated electrophysiology - was most predictive of contractility effects in an in vitro myocyte contractility assay. The activity of reference and proprietary compounds at the L-type calcium channel was measured by radioligand-binding assays, conventional patch-clamp, automated electrophysiology, and by measurement of contractility in canine isolated cardiac myocytes. Activity in the radioligand-binding assay at the L-type Ca channel phenylalkylamine binding site was most predictive of an inotropic effect in the canine cardiac myocyte assay. The sensitivity was 73%, specificity 83% and predictivity 78%. The radioligand-binding assay may be run at a single test concentration and potency estimated. The least predictive assay was automated electrophysiology which showed a significant bias when compared with other assay formats. Given the importance of the L-type calcium channel, not just in cardiac function, but also in other organ systems, a screening strategy emerges whereby single concentration ligand-binding can be performed early in the discovery process with sufficient predictivity, throughput and turnaround time to influence chemical design and address a significant safety-related liability, at relatively low cost.