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Review
. 2015 Jun;6(6):413-22.
doi: 10.1007/s13238-015-0152-6. Epub 2015 Apr 17.

Theoretical and simulation studies on voltage-gated sodium channels

Yang Li  1 , Haipeng Gong
Affiliations
Review

Theoretical and simulation studies on voltage-gated sodium channels

Yang Li et al. Protein Cell. 2015 Jun.

Abstract

Voltage-gated sodium (Nav) channels are indispensable membrane elements for the generation and propagation of electric signals in excitable cells. The successes in the crystallographic studies on prokaryotic Nav channels in recent years greatly promote the mechanistic investigation of these proteins and their eukaryotic counterparts. In this paper, we mainly review the progress in computational studies, especially the simulation studies, on these proteins in the past years.

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Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
The structural organization of VGCCs. Only the opposing two TDs are shown to facilitate visual recognition. The PD (purple) and VSDs (brown) are connected by a half helix (cyan) between TMs S4 and S5. The SF region within the PD is colored in red. Ligands can bind at both PD and VSDs, as shown by the black arrows
Figure 2
Figure 2
The ion binding sites identified in the SF of Na v channels. (A) The SF region is labeled by a cyan frame. (B) The schematic ion binding sites in NavAb. (C) The schematic ion binding sites in NavRh. (D) Aligned amino acid sequences for the SF region in various prokaryotic Nav channels as well as eukaryotic Nav and Cav channels. The four structural units in the eukaryotic channels are labeled as I, II, III and IV, respectively
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