Physiology and Evolution of Voltage-Gated Calcium Channels in Early Diverging Animal Phyla: Cnidaria, Placozoa, Porifera and Ctenophora

Physiology and Evolution of Voltage-Gated Calcium Channels in Early Diverging Animal Phyla: Cnidaria, Placozoa, Porifera and Ctenophora

Voltage-gated calcium (Cav) channels serve dual roles in the cell, where they can both depolarize the membrane potential for electrical excitability, and activate transient cytoplasmic Ca2+ signals. In animals, Cav channels play crucial roles including driving muscle contraction (excitation-contraction coupling), gene expression (excitation-transcription coupling), pre-synaptic and neuroendocri...

Porifera, Cnidaria, and Ctenophora

Voltage-Gated Calcium Channels

Voltage-gated calcium channels.

Voltage-gated calcium (Ca(2+)) channels are key transducers of membrane potential changes into intracellular Ca(2+) transients that initiate many physiological events. There are ten members of the voltage-gated Ca(2+) channel family in mammals, and they serve distinct roles in cellular signal transduction. The Ca(V)1 subfamily initiates contraction, secretion, regulation of gene expression, int...

The Physiology, Pathology, and Pharmacology of Voltage-Gated Calcium Channels and Their Future Therapeutic Potential.

Voltage-gated calcium channels are required for many key functions in the body. In this review, the different subtypes of voltage-gated calcium channels are described and their physiologic roles and pharmacology are outlined. We describe the current uses of drugs interacting with the different calcium channel subtypes and subunits, as well as specific areas in which there is strong potential fo...