TY - JOUR TI - Drift and termination of spiral waves in optogenetically modified cardiac tissue at sub-threshold illumination AU - Hussaini, Sayedeh AU - Venkatesan, Vishalini AU - Biasci, Valentina AU - Romero Sepúlveda, José M AU - Quiñonez Uribe, Raul A AU - Sacconi, Leonardo AU - Bub, Gil AU - Richter, Claudia AU - Krinski, Valentin AU - Parlitz, Ulrich AU - Majumder, Rupamanjari AU - Luther, Stefan A2 - Schneider-Warme, Franziska A2 - Stainier, Didier YR A2 - Schneider-Warme, Franziska VL - 10 PY - 2021 DA - 2021/01/27 SP - e59954 C1 - eLife 2021;10:e59954 DO - 10.7554/eLife.59954 UR - https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.59954 AB - The development of new approaches to control cardiac arrhythmias requires a deep understanding of spiral wave dynamics. Optogenetics offers new possibilities for this. Preliminary experiments show that sub-threshold illumination affects electrical wave propagation in the mouse heart. However, a systematic exploration of these effects is technically challenging. Here, we use state-of-the-art computer models to study the dynamic control of spiral waves in a two-dimensional model of the adult mouse ventricle, using stationary and non-stationary patterns of sub-threshold illumination. Our results indicate a light-intensity-dependent increase in cellular resting membrane potentials, which together with diffusive cell-cell coupling leads to the development of spatial voltage gradients over differently illuminated areas. A spiral wave drifts along the positive gradient. These gradients can be strategically applied to ensure drift-induced termination of a spiral wave, both in optogenetics and in conventional methods of electrical defibrillation. KW - optogenetics KW - spiral wave drift KW - defibrillation KW - sub-threshold illumination KW - mechanism of defibrillation JF - eLife SN - 2050-084X PB - eLife Sciences Publications, Ltd ER -