Virginia Tech launches study to examine effects of heart cell spaces on sudden cardiac death

As sudden cardiac death among patients with heart failure remains a major concern in the U.S., a new study conducted by researchers from Virginia Tech aims to tackle the issue.

Steven Poelzing, an associate professor at the Virginia Tech Carilion Research Institute in Roanoke, Virginia, has received a $2.1 million grant from the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute of the National Institutes of Health for the new study, according to a statement. It will investigate how the microscopic spaces surrounding heart cells have an affect on gap junctions, which are connections that let electrical impulses and small molecules pass between cells.

Through their research, investigators hypothesize they will discover that the size and nature of the space between cells can determine one’s risk of suffering from sudden cardiac death. Additionally, if those spaces can be modulated, it could be used a preventive therapy.

Of the more than 450,000 cases of sudden cardiac deaths in the U.S. each year, 80 percent are caused by abnormal electrical heart rhythms.

"This work is producing entirely new insights and providing the basis for new therapeutic platforms for the treatment of ischemic heart disease and the prevention of abnormal electrical rhythms in the heart, including those that can lead to sudden cardiac death," said Michael J. Friedlander, executive director of the Virginia Tech Carilion Research Institute, in a statement. “The work is part of a larger program at the Virginia Tech Carilion Research Institute that is becoming recognized as among the world's go-to places for fundamental, translational, and applied research on the nature of electrical coupling between cardiomyocytes and how this process is disrupted in heart disease.”

The grant to fund this study is the third active major grant given to the Virginia Tech Carilion Research Institute from the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute.

In addition to Poelzing, researchers working on the study include Rob Gourdie, a professor and director of the research institute's Center for Heart and Regenerative Medicine Research; Rafael Davalos, the L. Preston Wade Professor of biomedical engineering and mechanics in the College of Engineering; and James Smyth, an assistant professor at the institute.