May 25, 2015 – caM kinase

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Anchor lead: Can targeting a single enzyme help both heart failure and arrhythmias?  Elizabeth Tracey reports

Heart failure and disordered beating of the heart known as arrhythmia are killers, but as different as they appear clinically they have an enzyme in common, called caM kinase.  Mark Anderson, director of the department of medicine at Johns Hopkins, says this observation may point the way to effective intervention, known to be successful in animal models.

Anderson: It turns out this particular enzyme, called caM kinase, becomes overactivated by a number of events that happen to occur in people in people with heart failure and arrhythmias.  The story of caM kinase suggests those things happen together because they’re driven by common molecular pathways or processes.  The idea is that by inhibiting caM kinase you could improve the mechanical features of heart failure while quashing the electrical instability that causes arrhythmias and in some unlucky ones, sudden death.   :31

Anderson spoke recently at a media briefing at the National Press Club.  At Johns Hopkins, I’m Elizabeth Tracey.