Developing better tests and treatments for arrhythmias in the upper heart

Investigating regulatory pathways for intracellular sodium in the atria (Ms Syeeda Kabir)

Arrhythmias (fast, slow or irregular heartbeats) most commonly occur in the upper chambers of the heart. Drugs used to treat arrhythmias target sodium-transporting molecules that are present in both upper and lower chambers of the heart. However, Dr Pavlovic has shown that heart cells in the upper and lower chambers control sodium-transport in different ways. This could explain why treatments often do not work for arrhythmias in the upper heart chambers. Dr Pavlovic will use high-quality fluorescent dyes that can detect sodium with a technique called ‘optical mapping’, which lights up the heart, allowing the sodium dyes to be seen. These methods will be used to investigate how sodium transport is controlled in individual heart muscle cells. These heart muscle cells will be isolated from the atrium of mice as well as the whole intact mouse atrium. Dr Pavlovic will also use state-of-the-art super-resolution scans to monitor the amount and location of important proteins that control sodium transport in isolated atrial heart muscle cells. The results will help us to better understand the differences in sodium transport between the upper and lower chambers of the heart and to develop new ways to treat patients with arrhythmias.