Details

Autor(en) / Beteiligte

• Schmauder, Ralf
• Eick, Thomas
• Schulz, Eckhard
• Sammler, Günther
• Voigt, Elmar
• Mayer, Günter
• Ginter, Holger
• Ditze, Günter
• Benndorf, Klaus

Titel

Fast functional mapping of ligand-gated ion channels

Ist Teil von

• Communications biology, 2023-10, Vol.6 (1), p.1003-1003, Article 1003

Ort / Verlag

London: Nature Publishing Group UK

Erscheinungsjahr

2023

Link zum Volltext

Quelle

Elektronische Zeitschriftenbibliothek - Frei zugängliche E-Journals

Beschreibungen/Notizen

• Abstract Ligand-gated ion channels are formed by three to five subunits that control the opening of the pore in a cooperative fashion. We developed a microfluidic chip-based technique for studying ion currents and fluorescence signals in either excised membrane patches or whole cells to measure activation and deactivation kinetics of the channels as well as ligand binding and unbinding when using confocal patch-clamp fluorometry. We show how this approach produces in a few seconds either unidirectional concentration-activation relationships at or near equilibrium and, moreover, respective time courses of activation and deactivation for a large number of freely designed steps of the ligand concentration. The short measuring period strongly minimizes the contribution of disturbing superimposing effects such as run-down phenomena and desensitization effects. To validate gating mechanisms, complex kinetic schemes are quantified without the requirement to have data at equilibrium. The new method has potential for functionally analyzing any ligand-gated ion channel and, beyond, also for other receptors.