Stopping heart attacks with light: Optogenetics researchers see opsins as a way to move beyond defibrillators and pacemakers.
▻http://www.slate.com/blogs/future_tense/2013/08/30/stopping_heart_attacks_with_light_optogenetics_researchers_see_opsins_as.html
Future Heart Attack Treatments Will Use Light, Not Volts, to Keep Your Heart Beating
By Jason Bittel | Posted Friday, Aug. 30, 2013, at 4:44 PM
In this illustration, the “optrode” at left delivers blue light to the heart via a fiber-optic tip. At right, a heart cell (large red oval) contains an implanted light-sensitive “opsin” protein (blue oval) that works alongside the heart’s own proteins (yellow ovals). This teamwork allows the cell to convert light energy into an electric kick that triggers a healthy heartbeat.
Graphic courtesy of Patrick M. Boyle
Electricity is as blunt a tool as we have in our medical arsenal. Whether it’s an implanted pacemaker or defibrillator paddles on the chest—CLEAR!—using electricity to kick-start a heart feels like getting kicked by a Clydesdale. We use it because it works, but we can’t stop all those volts from ripping through surrounding flesh and bone. Scientists call this a global electrical response, and it does a number on the human body, from killing cells to disrupting the heart’s normal rat-a-tat rhythm. And that’s why a team at Johns Hopkins University is experimenting with a lighter approach.