A helical segment makes potassium channels go-go
- From the Département de Pharmacologie et Physiologie, Faculté de Médecine, Centre de recherche de l'Institut de Cardiologie de Montréal, Université de Montréal, Montréal, Québec H3C 3J7, Canada
- ↵1Supported by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research and the Canadian Heart and Stroke Foundation. To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: lucie.parent{at}umontreal.ca.
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Edited by F. Anne Stephenson
Abstract
More than 500 variants in the KCNH2 gene, which encodes the cardiac human ether-a-go-go (hERG) ion channel, have been associated with sudden cardiac death, but only a subset of these variants have been investigated. Matthew D. Perry and colleagues now combine NMR spectroscopy and electrophysiological experiments to explore the functional properties of mutations within an overlooked hERG helix, finding important contributions to channel function.
Footnotes
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The author declares that she has no conflicts of interest with the contents of this article.
- © 2017 by The American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Inc.
