In a surprising new finding, neuroscientists have shown that human neurons have a much lower density of ion channels than expected, compared to the neurons of other mammals. Ion channels produce ...

A member of an important class of ion channel proteins can transiently rearrange itself into a larger structure with dramatically altered properties, according to a new study. The discovery is a ...

Ion selectivity is an important property of cell membrane ion channels. For example, potassium ion channels are more permeable to potassium ions than to sodium ions. The mechanism underlying the ready ...

A new study has rewritten the conventionally understood evolutionary history of certain ion channels -- proteins critical for electrical signaling in the nervous system. The study shows that the ...

Cells send electrical impulses throughout the body, but electrophysiologists struggled to tune into these signals until the patch clamp technique was developed. Although biophysicist Bernard Katz from ...

Potassium channels can become nonconducting via inactivation at a gate inside the highly conserved selectivity filter (SF) region near the extracellular side of the membrane. In certain ligand-gated ...

Lysosomes are the recycling centers of human cells. Larger molecules are broken down inside the membrane-enclosed vesicles. Malfunctions can lead to neurodegenerative diseases such as Parkinson's.

Maintenance of cardiac rhythm and pain sensation require the flow of ions across the membranes of all cells. Ion channels, which facilitate this movement, are protein assemblies that penetrate the ...

Researchers decipher the function of an ion channel involved in cellular degradation processes and create new possibilities for Parkinson’s therapies.