background calcium infusion is used as a pre-treatment before calcium channel blockers to prevent hypotension. occasional cardioversion with calcium gluconate infusion is seen in patients with paroxysmal supraventricular tachycardia. several mechanisms have been suggested for mechanism. herein we report a case presenting with atrial fibrillation but cardioverted with calcium gluconate infusion,...

The calcium permeability of the mouse muscle nicotinic ACh receptor (nAChR) was determined using patch-clamp techniques. Single-channel currents were measured in pure external calcium and in mixtures of calcium with cesium or sodium. At low concentrations, calcium decreases the current carried by the monovalent cation. At higher concentrations, calcium displaces the monovalent cation as the mai...

N-type calcium channels located on presynaptic nerve terminals regulate neurotransmitter release, including that from the spinal terminations of primary afferent nociceptors. Accordingly, N-type calcium channel blockers may have clinical utility as analgesic drugs. A selective N-type calcium channel inhibitor, ziconotide (Prialt), is a neuroactive peptide recently marketed as a novel nonopioid ...

In human hypertrophic cardiomyopathy and hypertension associated ventricular hypertrophy, chronic use of calcium channel blockers results in a significant regression of hypertrophy. The main objective of this study was to test the hypothesis that modulation of calcium influx through the voltage-sensitive L-type Ca2+ channel directly affects myocardial hypertrophy. Agents that modified calcium i...

We have investigated the effects of etomidate 4.4 mumol litre-1, 1.0 mg litre-1 and 27.4 mumol litre-1, 6.25 mg litre-1 on whole-cell and single L-type calcium channel currents in myocytes from guineapig ventricles. For whole-cell recordings, the cells were voltage-clamped and step depolarizations were applied from holding potential of -40 mV to various potentials to elicit L-type calcium curre...

Platelet-activating factor (PAF) is an autocrine trophic/survival factor for the preimplantation embryo. PAF induced an increase in intracellular calcium concentration ([Ca2+]i) in the 2-cell embryo that had an absolute requirement for external calcium. L-type calcium channel blockers (diltiazem, verapamil, and nimodipine) significantly inhibited PAF-induced Ca2+ transients, but inhibitors of P...

The pedunculopontine nucleus (PPN) is a component of the reticular activating system (RAS), and is involved in the activated states of waking and rapid eye movement (REM) sleep. Gamma oscillations (approximately 30-80 Hz) are evident in all PPN neurons and are mediated by high-threshold voltage-dependent N- and P/Q-type calcium channels. We tested the hypothesis that high-speed calcium imaging ...

The therapeutic agents flunarizine and lomerizine exhibit inhibitory activities against a variety of ion channels and neurotransmitter receptors. We have optimized their scaffolds to obtain more selective N-type calcium channel blockers. During this optimization, we discovered NP118809 and NP078585, two potent N-type calcium channel blockers which have good selectivity over L-type calcium chann...