A UBC spin-off company is developing drugs that could save the lives of many of
the half a million heart attack victims who die each year in North America.
Rhythm Search Developments Ltd. was founded four years ago based on the
research of Michael Walker, a professor in the Dept. of Pharmacology and
Therapeutics. It is now a wholly-owned subsidiary of Nortran Pharmaceuticals.
Nortran’s main focus is the development of antiarrhythmic drugs to prevent
ventricular arrhythmias, which are the major cause of sudden cardiac death in
heart attack victims.
“We want to get drugs out there that are significantly better than anything on
the market now,” Walker said.
A heart attack occurs when one of the heart’s arteries is blocked by a blood
clot. This chokes off the blood supply and precious oxygen to a part of the
heart muscle, which then begins to die.
As the muscle dies, it generates aberrant electrical activity which can
interfere with the heart’s normal electrical signal. This may result in
ventricular fibrillation, in which the heart ceases its normal rhythmic beating
and begins to quiver uncontrollably.
The heart cannot pump blood in this state and the victim dies within minutes.
In a hospital, a patient can have a regular heart rhythm restored with a
defibrillator–the device that uses paddles to give patients an electric shock.
Otherwise, there are existing antiarrhythmic drugs, but their benefits are
severely limited by adverse side effects.
Researchers in Walker’s lab have designed drugs that prevent the damaged
portion of the heart from generating abnormal electrical activity, without
causing toxic side effects.
This new type of antiarrhythmic remains dormant until activated by the specific
conditions found during a heart attack in dying tissues, dramatically
increasing a patient’s chance of survival.
“We think we can make a drug that’s safe enough to give as a pill a day to the
millions of people who are at risk of a heart attack, in the same way people
take aspirin or cholesterol-reducing drugs,” Walker said.
The first generation of these antiarrhythmic drugs will enter clinical trials
in China and Brazil later this year, but Nortran has much greater expectations
of subsequent generations of drugs now in the pipeline.
Other UBC scientists, Dr. David Quastel, a professor in Pharmacology and
Therapeutics, and Dr. Bernard MacLeod, associate professor in the Dept. of
Anesthesia, have collaborated to develop novel analgesics which appear to work
differently than existing analgesics.
In association with Nortran, a first generation compound could go into clinical
trials in Vancouver by the end of the year.
