Molecular Mechanisms of Voltage-Gating and Modulation in Ion Channels
A special issue of International Journal of Molecular Sciences (ISSN 1422-0067). This special issue belongs to the section "Molecular Biophysics".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 31 January 2026 | Viewed by 5
Special Issue Editor
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
Voltage-gated ion channels are membrane proteins whose activity directly modifies the membrane potential of cells by allowing for a selective ion flow across the cell membrane. These ion channels have their activity (open/close probability) modulated by the cell membrane’s potential. In this fashion, voltage-gated ion channels participate in a very short loop of mechanistic feedback, in that the ion current that they generate instantly changes the membrane potential, which, in turn, directly modulates the channels’ activity through their own built-in voltage sensors. Many aspects of these channels’ voltage sensitivities, coupling, and modulation are still only partially understood or are yet to be discovered. Intramolecular and intermolecular mechanisms involving these channels are yet to be unveiled and framed as drug targets for research and development, as well as for potential therapeutics. MDPI, with myself as a Guest Editor, is launching this Special Issue, titled ‘Molecular Mechanisms of Voltage-Gating and Modulation in Ion Channels’, with the intention to produce a substantially beneficial and attractive collection of papers that will begin to close mechanistic gaps in the field of voltage-gated ion channels.
This Special Issue is led by Dr. Joao Luis Carvalho de Souza as Guest Editor and assisted by Dr. Carlos Bassetto from UTSA.
Dr. Joao Luis Carvalho de Souza
Guest Editor
Manuscript Submission Information
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Keywords
- voltage-gated ion channels
- voltage sensing
- voltage sensor coupling
- new modulators
- ion channel modulation
- cell excitability
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