The Fire From Within The Biggest Ca Channel Erupts and Dribbles

CaMKII Is a Pluripotent Signaling Molecule in Heart The multifunctional Ca and calmodulin (CaM)-dependent protein kinase II (CaMKII) is a serine threonine kinase that is abundant in heart where it phosphorylates Ca i homeostatic proteins. It seems likely that CaMKII plays an important role in cardiac physiology because these target proteins significantly overlap with the more extensively studied serine threonine kinase, protein kinase A (PKA), which is a key arbiter of catecholamine responses in heart. However, the physiological functions of CaMKII remain poorly understood, whereas the potential role of CaMKII in signaling myocardial dysfunction and arrhythmias has become an area of intense focus. CaMKII activity and expression are upregulated in failing human hearts and in many animal models of structural heart disease.1 CaMKII inhibitory drugs can prevent cardiac arrhythmias2,3 and suppress afterdepolarizations4 that are a probable proximate focal cause of arrhythmias in heart failure. CaMKII inhibition in mice reduces left ventricular dilation and prevents disordered intracellular Ca (Ca i) homeostasis after myocardial infarction.5 CaMKII overexpression in mouse heart causes severe cardiac hypertrophy, dysfunction, and sudden death that is heralded by increased SR Ca leak6; these findings go a long way to making a case for CaMKII as a causative signal in heart disease and arrhythmias but do not identify critical molecular targets or test the potential role of CaMKII in a large non-rodent animal model. The work by Ai et al in this issue of Circulation Research makes an important contribution by demonstrating CaMKII upregulation causes increased Ca leak from ryanodine receptor (RyR) Ca release channels in a clinicallyrelevant model of structural heart disease.7