Mitochondrial‐Mediated Oxidative Ca2+/Calmodulin‐Dependent Kinase II Activation Induces Early Afterdepolarizations in Guinea Pig Cardiomyocytes: An In Silico Study

Background Oxidative stress–mediated Ca2+/calmodulin‐dependent protein kinase II (CaMKII) phosphorylation of cardiac ion channels has emerged as a critical contributor to arrhythmogenesis in cardiac pathology. However, the link between mitochondrial‐derived reactive oxygen species (mdROS) and increased CaMKII activity in the context of cardiac arrhythmias has not been fully elucidated and is difficult to establish experimentally. Methods and Results We hypothesize that pathological mdROS can cause erratic action potentials through the oxidation‐dependent CaMKII activation pathway. We further propose that CaMKII‐dependent phosphorylation of sarcolemmal slow Na+ channels alone is sufficient to elicit early afterdepolarizations. To test the hypotheses, we expanded our well‐established guinea pig cardiomyocyte excitation‐contraction coupling, mitochondrial energetics, and ROS‐induced‐ROS‐release model by incorporating oxidative CaMKII activation and CaMKII‐dependent Na+ channel phosphorylation in silico. Simu...