Ion Channels Open Doors to New Drugs: Increased R&D Efforts Are Overcoming Obstacles and Showing Potential

摘要

Ion channels make good drug targets— they reside on the cell surface and are s% fast switching mechanisms. They act like cell transistors, controlling many cell processes. There are close to 500 types of ion channels, yet many remain undiscovered. This was mainly attributed to technology restraints, however, with the recent introduction of HT patch clamping, as well as new assays that facilitate faster, more robust screening, there are more ion channel receptors being detected. Researchers at the recent Society for Biomolecular Screening conference and CHI's upcoming "Pharmacology Driven Assays for GPCRs and Ion Channels" shared information on a cornucopia of topics, including the latest enabling technologies, new screening paradigms, and novel approaches to generate GPCRs.