Autoantibodies in cardiac arrhythmias v1.0
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Identification of autoantibodies in cardiac arrhythmia disorders
IRAS ID
141536
Contact name
Thomas J. Cahill
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
University of Oxford
Research summary
Our aim is to study a novel disease mechanism proposed to cause disorders of the electrical rhythm of the heart, or cardiac arrhythmias. Cardiac arrhythmias are an important cause of heart disease in young adults, and may cause sudden death as the first manifestation of the disease. While some cardiac arrhythmias occur due to structural heart problems, or genetic mutations in the cardiac electrical system, for a significant proportion the mechanism is not known. Despite the burden of illness and mortality associated with cardiac arrhythmias, for individual patients the disease pathophysiology is frequently unclear.
Based on advances in the understanding of electrical disorders occurring in the nervous system, our underling hypothesis is that proteins produced by the body’s immune system to recognise infection (antibodies) may rarely react abnormally against electrical channels in the heart. These ‘autoantibodies’ then modify the normal electrical currents, causing potentially fatal cardiac electrical rhythm disturbance.
We plan to recruit existing patients diagnosed with cardiac arrhythmias for which no cause has been found by existing diagnostic methods. Recruitment will take place at the Heart Hospital in London, which runs a national service for patients with arrhythmias. A control group of patients with arrhythmias due to known genetic mutations (previously tested) will be recruited, who we would not expect to have antibodies. Patients will initially be asked for a single blood test, to study for the presence of antibodies altering cardiac ion channel function. Any patients found to have cardiac autoantibodies will be followed-up and may be asked for further blood samples in the event of an admission to hospital or further episodes of cardiac arrhythmia. In due course, understanding disease pathophysiology may contribute to the development of novel therapies. This is a small hypothesis-testing study and will be funded internally by existing programme grants, without additional external funding.
REC name
South Central - Oxford A Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
14/SC/0103
Date of REC Opinion
12 Mar 2014
REC opinion
Favourable Opinion