Using Urry's gramicidin A (GA) atomic coordinates and ab into calculations, the interaction energies of a K+ ion with GA are examined. From these energies the values of the fitting parameters are obtained for 6-12-1 atom-atom pair potentials. The potential of the GA channel as experienced by the ion is analyzed in detail. An energy profile of the K+ ion in the GA channel is obtained by analyzin...

Conformational dynamics plays a critical role in the activation, deactivation, and open-close activities of ion channels in living cells. Such conformational dynamics is often inhomogeneous and extremely difficult to be directly characterized by ensemble-averaged spectroscopic imaging or only by single channel patch-clamp electric recording methods. We have developed a new and combined technica...

have enlightened a large array of ion channels with highly divergent properties. These channels are present in various Plant ion channel activities are rapidly modulated in subcellular membranes, including the plasma membrane, response to several environmental and endogenous the tonoplast, plastidial and mitochondrial membranes, stimuli. Electrophysiological as well as pharmacoloand those of th...

Ion channels, both ligand- and voltage-gated, play fundamental roles in many physiologic processes. Alteration in ion channel function underlies numerous pathologies, including hypertension, diabetes, chronic pain, epilepsy, certain cancers, and neuromuscular diseases. In addition, an increasing number of inherited and de novo ion channel mutations have been shown to contribute to disease state...

Keyhole limpet hemocyanin forms ion-conducting channels in planar lipid bilayer membranes. Ionic current through the open hemocyanin channel presents the following characteristics: (a) it is carried mainly by cations; (b) it is a nonlinear function of membrane potential; (c) channel conductance is a saturating function of ion activity; (d) it shows ionic competition. A model for the open hemocy...

The ion permeation process, driven by a membrane potential through an outer membrane protein, OmpF porin of Escherichia coli, was simulated by molecular dynamics. A Na+ ion, initially placed in the solvent region at the outer side of the porin channel, moved along the electric field passing through the porin channel in a 1.3 nsec simulation; the permeation rate was consistent with the experimen...

BACKGROUND Valvular heart disease (VHD), which often leads to atrial fibrillation (AF), and AF both cause ion-channel remodeling. We evaluated the ion-channel gene expression profile of VHD patients, in permanent AF (AF-VHD) or in sinus rhythm (SR-VHD), in comparison with patients without AF or VHD, respectively. METHODS AND RESULTS We used microarrays containing probes for human ion-channel ...

Ion channels are transmembrane proteins that selectively allow ions to flow across the plasma membrane and play key roles in diverse biological processes. A multitude of diseases, called channelopathies, such as epilepsies, muscle paralysis, pain syndromes, cardiac arrhythmias or hypoglycemia are due to ion channel mutations. A wide corpus of literature is available on ion channels, covering bo...

For excitable membranes, use and frequency dependence represent a progressive incorporation of drug into gated ion channels with repetitive stimulation. In contrast to receptors where access to ligand is continuous in time, we define guarded receptors, such as gated ion channels, as receptors whose access to the ligand pool is transient and controlled by the channel-gating process. During repet...