Currently, whether a drug is safe for the heart is assessed by a set of laboratory tests, with a tightly limited range of acceptable outcomes. But there is broad agreement within the drug development community that these tests are not as sensitive or accurate as they should be. The challenge has been how to find a credible alternative.
Dr Helen Maddock, principal lecturer in cardiovascular physiology and pharmacology, has discovered a method of using donated human heart muscle tissue to efficiently test drugs to analyse the risk of side effects and damage to the heart.
When drugs are developed to treat a particular disease they sometimes have dangerous side effects. Occasionally these side effects are only recognised after the drug has been marketed and thousands of patients have been treated. This is a significant risk to human health and caused very high costs to the pharmaceutical industry when a potentially dangerous product has been withdrawn from the market.
Maddock explained: "I have an extensive background in preclinical and clinical cardiovascular biology and the safety of pharmacology aspects of pharmaceutical industry. I know, from first-hand experience that there is a huge shortfall in this area.
"Although side effects of drugs can be caused by many things, one area of great concern is the direct effect of drugs on the force of contraction of the heart muscle. Drugs that cause the heart to reduce or increase the contraction of the heart can have a major effect on the ability to pump appropriate amounts of blood around the rest of the body. Currently drug testing relies mainly on the use of animals, tissue taken from animals, such that the tests do not do well in predicting the effect on humans."
Maddock joined Coventry University in 2001 with the ambition and determination to solve this issue. She wanted to set up a human heart tissue model which would better simulate the real contractile conditions of the heart muscle. By developing this model, she knew that pharmaceutical companies could potentially be able to test their drugs much more reliably and extensively before they got to market.
Maddock continued: "It's taken a further three years of discussions with experts in the pharmaceutical industry to establish the commercial viability of the model."
Maddock has been working closely for a number of years with a number of pharmaceutical experts and some of the largest companies in the business so her work is already well known in the industry.
She said: "I'm working alongside various experts to look at ways of developing the model. We've got to keep the research momentum going alongside the running of a new business."
Dr Helen Maddock has extensive experience in pre-clinical cardiovascular assay development and she has been active in the area of cardiovascular biology for over 25 years.
She has 41 peer-reviewed cardiovascular biology research publications and three patents filed. Dr Maddock leads a successful research team at Coventry University, as well as undertaking the role of CEO of InoCardia. Helen has attracted research funding from the British Heart Foundation, Heart Research UK, British Pharmacological Society and the European Regional Development Fund.
She has also recently received considerable funding the Technology Strategy Board and the NC3Rs to support assay development within InoCardia.
This content is brought to you by Coventry University
