scholarly journals Cryo-electron microscopy structure of the TRPV2 ion channel

2016 ◽  
Vol 23 (2) ◽  
pp. 180-186 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lejla Zubcevic ◽  
Mark A Herzik ◽  
Ben C Chung ◽  
Zhirui Liu ◽  
Gabriel C Lander ◽  
...  
eLife ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 7 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sigrid Noreng ◽  
Arpita Bharadwaj ◽  
Richard Posert ◽  
Craig Yoshioka ◽  
Isabelle Baconguis

The epithelial sodium channel (ENaC), a member of the ENaC/DEG superfamily, regulates Na+ and water homeostasis. ENaCs assemble as heterotrimeric channels that harbor protease-sensitive domains critical for gating the channel. Here, we present the structure of human ENaC in the uncleaved state determined by single-particle cryo-electron microscopy. The ion channel is composed of a large extracellular domain and a narrow transmembrane domain. The structure reveals that ENaC assembles with a 1:1:1 stoichiometry of α:β:γ subunits arranged in a counter-clockwise manner. The shape of each subunit is reminiscent of a hand with key gating domains of a ‘finger’ and a ‘thumb.’ Wedged between these domains is the elusive protease-sensitive inhibitory domain poised to regulate conformational changes of the ‘finger’ and ‘thumb’; thus, the structure provides the first view of the architecture of inhibition of ENaC.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zhen Wang ◽  
Fengying Fan ◽  
Lili Dong ◽  
Qingxia Wang ◽  
Yue Zhou ◽  
...  

TACAN is not a mechanosensitive ion channel but significantly linked to the mechanical hyperalgesia. In this study, we show that the human TACAN is a homodimer with each monomer consisting of a body, a spring and a blade domains. The body domain contains six transmembrane helices that forms an independent channel. The spring domain adapts a loop-helix-loop configuration with the helix running within and parallel to the membrane. The blade domain is composed of two cytoplasmic helices. In addition, we found that all the helices of the body and the spring domains are specifically associated with membrane lipids. Particularly, a lipid core, residing within a cavity formed by the two body and spring domains, contacts with the helices from the body and spring domains and extends to reach two symmetrically arranged lipid clusters. These results extremely imply that the membrane lipids coordinate with the membrane-embedded protein to sense and transduce the mechanic signal.


2021 ◽  
Vol 120 (3) ◽  
pp. 192a
Author(s):  
Urska Rovsnik ◽  
Yuxuan Zhuang ◽  
Bjorn Forsberg ◽  
Marta Carroni ◽  
Linnea Axelsson ◽  
...  

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bethan A. Cole ◽  
Rachel M. Johnson ◽  
Hattapark Dejakaisaya ◽  
Nadia Pilati ◽  
Colin W.G. Fishwick ◽  
...  

AbstractSeveral types of drug-resistant epileptic encephalopathies of infancy have been associated with mutations in the KCNT1 gene, which encodes the sodium-activated potassium channel subunit KNa1.1. These mutations are commonly gain-of-function, increasing channel activity, therefore inhibition by drugs is proposed as a stratified approach to treat disorders. To date, quinidine therapy has been trialled with several patients, but mostly with unsuccessful outcomes, which has been linked to its low potency and lack of specificity. Here we describe the use of a cryo-electron microscopy-derived KNa1.1 structure and mutational analysis to identify the quinidine biding site and identified novel inhibitors that target this site using computational methods. We describe six compounds that inhibit KNa1.1 channels with low- and sub-micromolar potencies, likely through binding in the intracellular pore vestibule. In preliminary hERG inhibition and cytotoxicity assays, two compounds showed little effect. These compounds may provide starting points for the development of novel pharmacophores for KNa1.1 inhibition, with the view to treating KCNT1-associated epilepsy and, with their potencies higher than quinidine, could become key tool compounds to further study this channel. Furthermore, this study illustrates the potential for utilising cryo-electron microscopy in ion channel drug discovery.


2020 ◽  
Vol 29 (8) ◽  
pp. 1803-1815
Author(s):  
Weixin Yang ◽  
Youwang Wang ◽  
Jianli Guo ◽  
Lingli He ◽  
Ye Zhou ◽  
...  

2019 ◽  
Vol 116 (3) ◽  
pp. 160a
Author(s):  
Urska Rovsnik ◽  
Rebecca Howard ◽  
Bjorn Forsberg ◽  
Marta Carroni ◽  
Erik Lindahl

Nature ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 541 (7638) ◽  
pp. 500-505 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eunyong Park ◽  
Ernest B. Campbell ◽  
Roderick MacKinnon

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
U Rovšnik ◽  
Y Zhuang ◽  
L Axelsson ◽  
BO Forsberg ◽  
V Lim ◽  
...  

AbstractLigand-gated ion channels are critical mediators of electrochemical signal transduction across evolution. Biophysical and pharmacological development in this family relies on high-quality structural data in multiple, subtly distinct functional states. However, structural data remain limited, particularly for the unliganded or resting state. Here we report cryo-electron microscopy structures of the Gloeobacter violaceus ligand-gated ion channel (GLIC) under resting and activating conditions (neutral and low pH). Parallel models were built either manually or using recently developed density-guided molecular simulations. The moderate resolution of resting-state reconstructions, particularly in the extracellular domain, was improved under activating conditions, enabling the visualization of residues at key subunit interfaces including loops B, C, F, and M2–M3. Combined with molecular dynamics simulations, the cryo-electron microscopy structures at different pH describe a heterogeneous population of closed channels, with activating conditions condensing the closed-channel energy landscape on a pathway towards gating.


Author(s):  
Joachim Frank

Compared with images of negatively stained single particle specimens, those obtained by cryo-electron microscopy have the following new features: (a) higher “signal” variability due to a higher variability of particle orientation; (b) reduced signal/noise ratio (S/N); (c) virtual absence of low-spatial-frequency information related to elastic scattering, due to the properties of the phase contrast transfer function (PCTF); and (d) reduced resolution due to the efforts of the microscopist to boost the PCTF at low spatial frequencies, in his attempt to obtain recognizable particle images.


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