Aspergillus-Induced Cardiac Injury Modeling and Preventive Strategy Screening via a Universal Precise Cardiomyocyte-Based Electrophysiological Biosensing Platform.

Abstract

Aspergillus-induced cardiac injury represents a severe manifestation of invasive aspergillosis characterized by high mortality and diagnostic challenges. Current in vitro models fail to provide real-time monitoring of cardiac electrophysiological changes, which hinders the elucidation of the mechanisms underlying electrophysiological disturbances caused by fungal invasion and its associated metabolites. Hence, this study developed a universal precise electrophysiological biosensing platform to enable real-time, dynamic monitoring of cardiomyocyte electrophysiological fluctuations under exposure to gliotoxin (GT), a major virulence factor of Aspergillus fumigatus. Acute exposure to 250 nM GT significantly increased the firing rate of cardiomyocytes within 8 h, while prolonged exposure progressively reduced the signal amplitude. Skullcapflavone II (SF2) can effectively protect against GT-induced cardiomyocyte damage by maintaining the electrophysiological signal stability. This self-developed platform provides a universal and precise tool to investigate the pathophysiology of Aspergillus-induced cardiac injury and to assess protective strategies through real-time electrophysiological monitoring.