Zebrafish model helps identify drug compound that reverses lethal form of cardiomyopathy

Investigators have identified a drug compound that appears to reverse arrhythmogenic cardiomyopathy using a zebrafish model. This condition is a hereditary disease and leading cause of sudden death in young people. It damages the muscle of the heart's ventricles (the pumping chambers) so that, over time, muscle cells or myocytes, become replaced by fatty deposits and fibrosis, leaving patients especially susceptible to arrhythmias.