A new study unveils a precise picture of how an ion channel found in most mammalian cells regulates its own function with a “ball-and-chain” channel-plugging mechanism. The findings could lead to new drugs that target these channels to treat disorders such as epilepsy and hypertension.
The general anesthetic propofol may hold the keys to developing new treatment strategies for epilepsy and other neurological disorders, according to a study led by researchers at Weill Cornell Medicine and Linköping University in Sweden.
Researchers at Weill Cornell Medicine and RMIT University in Australia have discovered that ion channels called BK channels have unique openings in their sides, which drug molecules may be able to access.
Two highly similar molecules with essential, but often contrasting, signaling roles in most life forms exert their distinct effects through subtle differences in their bindings to their signaling partners.
The mechanism by which fat-related molecules called lipids regulate pacemaker ion channel proteins, which help control the heart rhythm, has been revealed in a study from researchers at Weill Cornell Medicine.
