Mechanosensitive Ion Channels in Health and Disease

Dear Colleagues,

Mechanic sensitivity is the fundamental aspect of functioning of all living species. The still intriguing issue is the nature of the special sensors for detection of mechanical forces. For long time the sensitivity to mechanical forces was attributed to different types of membrane proteins ranging from NMDA glutamate receptors to different subtypes of potassium or TRP channels.  

After discovery in 2010, this list was extended as Piezo channels have emerged as the most sensitive mechanotransducers implicated in a huge variety of physiological and pathological functions. These extremely ‘heavy’ proteins are expressed in sensory neurons to detect the touch and implicated in hearing; in endothelial cells, Piezo1 channels sense shear stress to dictate many important functions such as embryonic development, regulation of vascular tone, angiogenesis and atherosclerosis progression;  in red blood cells they serve as the sensors of the shear stress and are closely linked to red blood cell diseases; in myeloid cells Piezo1 channels are essential for innate immunity; in baroreceptors Piezo1 and Piezo2 channels sense blood pressure; in astrocytes they potentially implicated in the development of Alzheimer’s Disease. Notably, apart from natural mechanical forces, Piezo1 channels are sensitive to the chemical agonist, Yoda1. However, the endogenous Piezo1 agonists are not found yet. 

Activation of Piezo channels is tightly coupled to the purinergic signalling as ATP release is extremely sensitive to mechanical stress suggesting an interesting synergy between these two singlling systems.

One issue of high translational importance in view of the coronavirus pandemics, is the role of Piezo channels in lungs as the data on their functional effects in this tissue are very contradictory. Likewise, the contradictory is the role of Piezo channels in cancer development.

This Special Issue ' Mechanosensitive Ion Channels in Health and Disease ' aims to collect reviews and original papers related to the basic functions of different types of mechanosensitive ion channels and translational aspects of these transducers of mechanical forces.

Prof. Dr. Rashid Giniatullin
Dr. Jian Shi
Guest Editors

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