Class III antiarrhythmic agents: Delayed cardiac repolarization by selective blockade of IKr, IKs or IKur

MEDI 448

Harold Selnick, hal_selnick@merck.com, Medicinal Chemistry, Merck Research Laboratories, West Point, PA 19486
The treatment of life-threatening cardiac arhythmias remains a serious unmet medical need. Currently available therapies are suboptimal and carry serious risks of proarrhythmia. The realization that reentry is the most prominent mechanism underlying cardiac arrhythmias has prompted considerable efforts to modulate myocardial refractoriness. Several potassium channels that play important roles in cardiac repolarization have emerged as attractive targets for pharmacologic intervention over the years including IKr, IKs and IKur. The discovery of potent and selective blockers of these targets will be presented as well as potential advantages and disadvantages to these approaches.