Cardiac Drug Development Guide (Methods in Pharmacology and Toxicology)

Cardiac Drug Development Guide outlines, in detail, the therapeutics of cardiac medicine currently at the cutting edge of scientific research and development around the world. This volume integrates basic and clinical cardiac pharmacology by c- bining, for the first time, both classical and molecular aspects of therapeutic drug development. The chapters comprise a broad spectrum of therapeutic areas and hence involve a comprehensive discussion of molecular, biochemical, and electrophy- ological concepts based on years of in vitro as well as in vivo pharmacological st- ies. In addition, the latter part of the book includes comprehensive clinical cardiac chapters that describe important topics in molecular medicine. These chapters also discuss current clinical therapeutic trends in medicine and provide an evaluation of the efficacy of novel drugs in these areas. Cardiac Drug Development Guide has many distinctive and outstanding features that set it apart from other cardiac pharmacology books. This book introduces topics in an easily understandable format for researchers in many varying disciplines by integrating and thereby simplifying concepts not usually discussed across a broad range of cardiac disciplines and in a highly technical field. Each chapter not only introduces and describes the physiology, pharmacology, and pathophysiology of the disease, but also overviews the clinical implications of drug development, what stages these areas are currently in, and also reviews some of the methodologies involved in drug discovery and development. As a result, this book provides a comprehensive overview of the most advanced procedures in cardiac pharmacology today.

The revolution in molecular medicine makes it imperative to integrate the classical and molecular approaches to drug development for the treatment of heart disease, the number one killer in North America and Europe. In the Cardiac Drug Development Guide, basic medical researchers, clinicians, and pharmacologists join forces to comprehensively survey the most recent breakthroughs in molecular cardiology and review the latest drug discoveries in cardiac and cardiovascular medicine. Topics range from novel molecular targets for cardiac drug development, to functional endpoints for evaluating cardiac drug activity, to clinical aspects of cardiovascular therapeutics. The authors describe the most advanced procedures in cardiovascular pharmacology, including in vivo and in vitro whole animal studies, the electrophysiological methods used to study pacemaker cells, and the application of biochemical principles and technologies to novel therapeutic agents. Also discussed are the methods used to express the ion channels involved in cardiovascular pharmacology, adenoviral vector delivery for cardiovascular gene therapy, pharmacometrics in cardiovascular drug development, gender differences in heart failure, and angiogenesis therapies for coronary heart disease. Each chapter concisely illustrates the concepts described and includes comprehensive background information, detailed figures and tables, and an up-to-date list of the most important references.
Comprehensive and easy-to-understand, the Cardiac Drug Development Guide offers pharmacologists, cardiologists, and physiologists not only a gold-standard survey of the many different methods being used to develop new heart drugs, but also details powerful new ways in which cardiovascular disease is targeted, from the whole organ to the genetic level.