Membrane bioelectrogenesis and ionic channel activity simulation under drug action

Abstract

The concept of the ionic channel, as a protein with more discrete ionic conductance levels, is analyzed and a computer program, aiming to simulate its dynamics under the action of a pharmacological agent, is presented. The binding of a pharmacological agent modifies the set of the possible configurations and the channel energy spectrum. Therefore it modifies the transition probabilities and the dwelling times in the excited (generally conductive) states. The program creates a library of simulations of the electric activity of some user designated hypothetical models. The simulations are then statistically compared to the recorded single channel events to select the most suitable model.