One drug-sensitive subunit is sufficient for a near-maximal retigabine effect in KCNQ channels

Autor: Michael C. Yau, Harley T. Kurata, Stephan A. Pless, Jingru Li, Caroline K. Wang, Tarek Ammar, Robin Y. Kim, Runying Y. Yang
Jazyk: angličtina
Rok vydání: 2018
Předmět:
Zdroj: The Journal of General Physiology
ISSN: 1540-7748
0022-1295
Popis: Retigabine is a widely studied potassium channel activator that is thought to interact with a conserved Trp side chain in the pore domain of Kv7 subunits. Yau et al. demonstrate that drug sensitivity in just one of the four subunits is sufficient for a near-maximal response to retigabine.
Retigabine is an antiepileptic drug and the first voltage-gated potassium (Kv) channel opener to be approved for human therapeutic use. Retigabine is thought to interact with a conserved Trp side chain in the pore of KCNQ2–5 (Kv7.2–7.5) channels, causing a pronounced hyperpolarizing shift in the voltage dependence of activation. In this study, we investigate the functional stoichiometry of retigabine actions by manipulating the number of retigabine-sensitive subunits in concatenated KCNQ3 channel tetramers. We demonstrate that intermediate retigabine concentrations cause channels to exhibit biphasic conductance–voltage relationships rather than progressive concentration-dependent shifts. This suggests that retigabine can exert its effects in a nearly “all-or-none” manner, such that channels exhibit either fully shifted or unshifted behavior. Supporting this notion, concatenated channels containing only a single retigabine-sensitive subunit exhibit a nearly maximal retigabine effect. Also, rapid solution exchange experiments reveal delayed kinetics during channel closure, as retigabine dissociates from channels with multiple drug-sensitive subunits. Collectively, these data suggest that a single retigabine-sensitive subunit can generate a large shift of the KCNQ3 conductance–voltage relationship. In a companion study (Wang et al. 2018. J. Gen. Physiol. https://doi.org/10.1085/jgp.201812014), we contrast these findings with the stoichiometry of a voltage sensor-targeted KCNQ channel opener (ICA-069673), which requires four drug-sensitive subunits for maximal effect.
Databáze: OpenAIRE