Fast and accurate prediction of drug induced proarrhythmic risk with sex specific cardiac emulators
In silico trials for drug safety assessment require many high-fidelity 3D cardiac simulations to predict drug-induced QT interval prolongation, which is often computationally prohibitive. To streamline this process, we developed sex-specific emulators for a fast prediction of QT interval, trained on a dataset of 900 simulations. Our results show significant differences between 3D and 0D single-cell models as risk levels increase, underscoring the ability of 3D modeling to capture more complex cardiac responses. The emulators demonstrated an average error of 4% compared to simulations, allowing for efficient global sensitivity analysis and fast replication of in silico clinical trials. This approach enables rapid, multi-dose drug testing on standard hardware, addressing critical industry challenges around trial design, assay variability, and cost-effective safety evaluations. By integrating these emulators into drug development, we can improve preclinical reliability and advance the practical application of digital twins in biomedicine.
Authors
- Caterina Balzotti (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0100-8587)
- Mariano Vázquez (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2526-6708)
- Börje Darpö
- Christopher L. Morton (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4027-7050)
- Jazmín Aguado‐Sierra (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9711-3225)
- Alberto Zingaro (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1522-9647)
- Paula Dominguez-Gomez (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0006-6357-1355)
- Laura Baldo-Canut
Institutions
- Universitat Pompeu Fabra (ES)
- SOM Biotech (Spain) (ES)
- Barcelona Supercomputing Center (ES)
- Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (ES)
Publication Details
- Journal
- npj Digital Medicine
- Published
- 2024-12-26
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1038/s41746-024-01370-8
- Citations
- 7
- Primary Topic
- Cardiac electrophysiology and arrhythmias
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 2.81
Funders
- European Commission