Optogenetic Reporters Delivered as mRNA Facilitate Repeatable Action Potential and Calcium Handling Assessment in Human iPSC-Derived Cardiomyocytes

Loukia Yiangou, Albert Blanch-Asensio, Tessa de Korte, Duncan C. Miller, Berend J. van Meer, Mervyn P.H. Mol, Lettine van den Brink, Karina O. Brandão, Christine L. Mummery, Richard P. Davis*

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticleAcademicpeer-review

2 Citations (Scopus)
1 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

Electrical activity and intracellular Ca2+ transients are key features of cardiomyocytes. They can be measured using organic voltage- and Ca2+sensitive dyes but their photostability and phototoxicity mean they are unsuitable for long-term measurements. Here, we investigated whether genetically encoded voltage and Ca2+ indicators (GEVIs and GECIs) delivered as modified mRNA (modRNA) into human induced pluripotent stem cell-derived cardiomyocytes (hiPSC-CMs) would be accurate alternatives allowing measurements over long periods.These indicators were detected in hiPSC-CMs for up to 7 days after transfection and did not affect responses to proarrhythmic compounds. Furthermore, using the GEVI ASAP2f we observed action potential prolongation in long QT syndrome models, while the GECI jRCaMP1b facilitated the repeated evaluation of Ca2+ handling responses for various tyrosine kinase inhibitors.This study demonstrated that modRNAs encoding optogenetic constructs report cardiac physiology in hiPSC-CMs without toxicity or the need for stable integration, illustrating their value as alternatives to organic dyes or other gene delivery methods for expressing transgenes.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)655-668
Number of pages14
JournalStem cells
Volume40
Issue number7
Early online date16 Apr 2022
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Jul 2022

Keywords

  • cardiac disease modeling
  • GECI
  • GEVI
  • human pluripotent stem cells
  • mRNA
  • optical analysis

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