相关论文: Ion Channels, Natural Nanovalves

Calcium currents in neurons and muscle cells have been classified as being one of 5 types of which four, L, N, P/Q and R were said to be high threshold and one, T, was designated low threshold. This review focuses on quantitative aspects of…

The motion of molecules across channels is critically important for understanding mechanisms of cellular processes. Here we investigate the mechanism of interactions in the molecular transport by analyzing exactly solvable discrete…

In living organisms, information is processed in interconnected symphonies of ionic currents spiking through protein ion channels. As a result of dynamically switching their conductive states, ion channels exhibit a variety of…

Experiments on single ionic channels have contributed to a large extent to our current view on the function of cell membrane. In these experiments the main observables are the physical quantities: ionic concentration, membrane electrostatic…

Aquaporins (AQPs) are a family of transmembrane channels that are found from archaea, eubacteria, and fungi kingdoms to plants and animals. These proteins play a major role in water and small solutes transport across biological cell…

Ions transiting biomembranes might pass readily from water through ion-specific membrane proteins if those protein channels provide environments similar to the aqueous solution hydration environment. Indeed, bulk aqueous solution is an…

A field theoretic variational approach is introduced to study ion penetration into water-filled cylindrical nanopores in equilibrium with a bulk reservoir. It is shown that (i) an ion located in a neutral pore undergoes two opposing…

The flow of ions through permeable channels causes voltage drop in physiological nanodomains such as synapses, dendrites and dendritic spines, and other protrusions. How the voltage changes around channels in these nanodomains has remained…

Recent advances in nanofluidics have allowed exploration of ion transport down to molecular scale confinement, yet artificial porins are still far from reaching the advanced functionalities of biological ion machinery. Achieving single ion…

Ion transporters in Nature exhibit a wealth of complex transport properties such as voltage gating, activation, and mechanosensitive behavior. When combined, such processes result in advanced ionic machines achieving active ion transport,…

Membranes selective to ions of the same charge are increasingly sought for wastewater processing and valuable element recovery. However, while narrow channels are known to be essential, other membrane parameters remain difficult to identify…

The molecular mechanism of ion channel gating and substrate modulation is elusive for many voltage gated ion channels, such as eukaryotic sodium ones. The understanding of channel functions is a pressing issue in molecular biophysics and…

We have studied the dynamics of chloride and potassium ions in the interior of the OmpF porin under the influence of an external electric field. From the results of extensive all-atom molecular dynamics simulations of the system we computed…

This is an early but comprehensive review of the PNP Poisson Nernst Planck theory of ion channels. Extensive reference is made to the earlier literature. The starting place for this theory of open channels is a theory of electrodiffusion…

Voltage-gated ion channels are essential for propagating signals in neurons. Each channel senses the local membrane potential created by nearby ions. Fluctuations in these ions introduce two fundamental noise sources: (i) shot noise, from…

The opening or closing mechanism of a voltage-gated ion channel is triggered by the potential difference crossing the cell membrane in the nervous system. Based on this picture, we model the ion channel as a nanoscale two-terminal ionic…

Throughout our history, we, humans, have sought to better control and understand our environment. To this end, we have extended our natural senses with a host of sensors-tools that enable us to detect both the very large, such as the…

Ionic liquids (ILs), also known as room-temperature molten salts, are composed of pure ions with melting points usually below 100 degrees centigrade. Because of their low volatility and vast amounts of species, ILs can serve as "green…

Solid-state nanopores are promising tools for single molecule detection of both DNA and proteins. In this study, we investigate the patterns of ionic current blockades as DNA translocates into or out of the geometric confinement of such…

Assuming that the selectivity filter of KcsA potassium ion channel may exhibit quantum coherence, we extend a previous model by Vaziri and Plenio (2010) to take into account Coulomb repulsion between potassium ions. We show that typical ion…