Issues

Köster et al. characterize eight sodium channel subtypes relevant to nociception and use a computer model to simulate the response of two types of nociceptive nerve fibers. Their results provide a better understanding of Na_v1.7 and Na_v1.9 and have implications for future mechanistic studies and disease modelling.

Defective Ca²⁺ signaling in muscle cells is thought to play a role in Duchenne muscular dystrophy. Schreiber et al. report that voltage-activated SR Ca²⁺ release is moderately depressed in muscle fibers isolated from a rat model that reproduces the human disease well.

Tao and Corry investigate how the binding of sodium channel inhibitors to the Na_v1.5 pore using simulations reveal promiscuous, polyspecific binding at the fenestrations and central cavity. These findings shed light on diverse ways drugs inhibit the channel, offering insights for improving therapeutic development for conditions like chronic pain, epilepsy, and cardiac arrhythmias.

Elhanafy et al. show that identical mutations at equivalent positions in VSDs of cardiac sodium channels can lead to diverse functional effects. Using molecular dynamics simulations, they uncover VSD-specific structural dynamics and gating-pore conformations that explain these differential impacts, advancing our understanding of sodium channelopathies.

Picollo and Pusch present ALLIN (Annotation of sequence aLignment and structuraL ProteIn visualizatioN), a web interface to generate an interactive HTML page for the simultaneous visualization of annotated protein sequences alignment and 3-D structures or homology models of the related proteins.

Tao and Corry (2025) used metadynamics, an enhanced sampling method to identify and classify Na_v channel blockers.