Little is known about the nature of the calcium channels controlling neurotransmitter release from preganglionic parasympathetic nerve fibres. In the present study, the effects of selective calcium channel antagonists and amiloride were investigated on ganglionic neurotransmission. Conventional intracellular recording and focal extracellular recording techniques were used in rat submandibular a...

Progress in ophthalmology is accompanying with nonophthalmic drug use. Calcium channel blockers, which alter the intracellular calcium concentration by modifying calcium flux across cell membranes and affect various intracellular signaling processes, have been long and widely used to treat essential hypertension and certain types of cardiac diseases such as angina pectoris. Among five subtypes ...

Calcium fluxes have been implicated in the specification of the vertebrate embryonic nervous system for some time, but how these fluxes are regulated and how they relate to the rest of the neural induction cascade is unknown. Here we describe Calfacilitin, a transmembrane calcium channel facilitator that increases calcium flux by generating a larger window current and slowing inactivation of th...

Tight regulation of calcium entry through the L-type calcium channel CaV1.2 ensures optimal excitation-response coupling. In this issue of Neuron, Michailidis et al. (2014) demonstrate that CaV1.2 activity triggers negative feedback regulation through proteolytic cleavage of the channel within the core of the pore-forming subunit.

Ion channels are embedded in the lipid bilayer of cell membranes; therefore, it is not surprising that their functions can be modulated by membrane phospholipids and their metabolites. Over the last decade, a number of ion channels—including multiple types of potassium channels, voltage-gated calcium channels, and transient receptor potential channels—have been shown to be modulated by phosphol...

We examine how a variety of cationic channels discriminate between ions of differing charge. We construct models of the KcsA potassium channel, voltage gated sodium channel and L-type calcium channel, and show that they all conduct monovalent cations, but that only the calcium channel conducts divalent cations. In the KcsA and sodium channels divalent ions block the channel and prevent any furt...

OBJECTIVE To describe and provide audiovisual documentation of a syndrome of polymyoclonus, laryngospasm, and cerebellar ataxia associated with adenocarcinoma and multiple neural cation channel autoantibodies. DESIGN Case report with video. SETTING University hospitals. Patient A 69-year-old woman presented with subacute onset of whole-body tremulousness and laryngospasm attributed to gastr...

Neurodegeneration in Cerebellar Granule Cells of P/Q Type Voltage Gated Calcium Channel Mutant Leaner Mice. (December 2007) Bhupinder Bawa, B.V.Sc. & A.H., Punjab Agricultural University; M.V.Sc., Punjab Agricultural University Chair of Advisory Committee: Dr. Louise C. Abbott Mutations of the α1A subunit of CaV 2.1 voltage gated calcium (VGCC) channels are responsible for several inherited dis...

2,4-Dibromophenol (2,4-DBP) and 2,4,6-tribromophenol (2,4,6-TBP) are marine secondary metabolites, with 2,4,6-tribromophenol playing an important role as industrially produced flame retardant and pesticide. Both substances disturb cellular calcium signals in neuroendocrine cells as previously shown by Hassenklöver et al. (2006) [Hassenklöver, T., Predehl, S., Pilli, J., Ledwolorz, J., Assmann, ...