3/6/2011

eTOX in heart toxicity test breakthrough

Scientists of GRIB (IMIM-UPF) in the IMI project eTOX  have developed a computer model to test potential medicines for cardiotoxicity. Currently, many promising drug candidates fail because they turn out to cause serious heart problems in patients. The new eTOX system should help researchers pick up on these problems earlier on in the drug development process. Users simply have to enter the molecular formula of the compound into the tool, and the system generates a simulated ECG (electrocardiograph). Clinicians routinely use ECGs to diagnose heart problems in their patients; in the same way, users can study the simulated ECG generated by the eTOX system to determine whether or not a compound is toxic to the heart. ‘It provides better results than the currently used computational systems,’ commented eTOX project coordinator Ferran Sanz of Fundació IMIM in Spain.

Publication ref.: Obiol-Pardo C, Gomis-Tena J, Sanz F, Saiz J, Pastor M. A Multiscale Simulation System for the Prediction of Drug-Induced Cardiotoxicity. Journal of Chemical Information and Modeling, 2011.