Read more
This book covers the tremendous progress in the current understanding of the molecular physiology of voltage-gated calcium channels. This book includes unparalleled insights into structural features of calcium channels due to X-ray crystallography and cryo-EM, which in turn yielded critical information into how these channels function under normal and pathophysiological conditions, and how they interact with calcium channel therapeutics. The chapters investigate how, with the advent of high throughput genome sequencing, numerous mutations in various calcium channel genes have been identified in patients with neurological, cardiovascular, neuropsychiatric and other disorders. This is further complemented through a much larger in vivo toolkit such as knock-out and knock-in mice. The chapters further discuss the increased complexity of calcium channel physiology that arises from mRNA editing and splicing. Finally, the book also provides an overview of the updated research on calciumchannel inhibitors that can be used both in vivo and in vitro, and which may serve as a spring board for new calcium channel therapeutics for human disease. Voltage-Gated Calcium Channels is useful for academic researchers at all levels in neuroscience, biophysics, cell biology and drug discovery.
List of contents
1. Measuring and manipulating calcium.- 2. Structure, function and subunit assembly of VGCC.- 3. Splice variation and RNA editing of VGCCs.- 4. Mechanisms of calcium channel permeation.- 5. Regulation by beta subunits .- 6. Regulation by alpha2 delta subunits.- 7. VGCCs in invertebrates.- 8. Modulation by GPCRs and second messengers.- 9. Trafficking of VGCCs.- 10. Calcium regulation.- 11. Calcium channel complexes with other channels.- 12. Regulation of gene transcription by VGCCs.- 13. Lessons from knock-out and knock-in mice.- 14. VGCCs and synaptic transmission.- 15. Cardiovascular syste.- 16. Calcium channels and exocytosis in chromaffin cells.- 17. Calcium channels in the pancreas in health and disease.- 18. Skeletal muscle system.- 19. Auditory and visual systems.- 20. Calcium channels and pain transmission.- 21. Migraine.- 22. Epilepsy.- 23. Psychiatric disorders.- 24. Parkinson's disease.-25. Reproductive system.- 26. Cancer.- 27. Molecular determinants of VGCC pharmacology.- 28. Interactions with peptide toxins.- 29. Clinical pharmacology and drug discovery.
About the author
Dr. Gerald Werner Zamponi is a Professor in the Department of Physiology and Biophysics, and Canada Research Chair in Molecular Neuroscience, at the University of Calgary, Calgary, Canada.
Dr. Norbert Weiss is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Pathophysiology, Third Faculty of Medicine, Charles University, Prague, Czech Republic.
