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Updated: Aug 11, 2026

Measuring Nucleotide Binding to Intact, Functional Membrane Proteins in Real Time
Published on: March 11, 2021
Policing the ball: a new potassium channel subunit determines inactivation rate
1Department of Pharmacology and Cellular and Molecular Physiology, Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, Connecticut 06520, USA.
Abstract:
Inactivation of potassium currents during maintained firing results in a progressive increase in action potential width and neuronal excitability. In Kv1.1 channels, inactivation has attributed to a beta subunit that blocks the pore of the channel shortly after channel opening. In this issue of Neuron, Shulte and colleagues have identified a novel channel subunit whose interaction with Kv1.1 and the beta subunit prevents such inactivation. Mutations in this subunit lead to temporal lobe epilepsy.
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