Intracellular calcium controls a variety of cellular functions such as contraction, secretion, proliferation, and gene expression. One of the major pathways of calcium influx into cardiac myocytes is through T- and L-type voltage-gated Ca2+ channels. T-type, or low voltage-activated (LVA) channels, open after small depolarizations of the membrane. T-type currents have been found in atrial myocytes and pacemaker cells, where they are involved in determining pacemaker activity. Numerous drugs block L-type channels, however, there are no selective blockers of T-type channels. One of the long-term objectives of this research is to provide an assay system that will allow the development of T-type channel blockers. Calcium channels are multisubunit complexes composed of a large, ion-conducting subunit, alpha1, and several accessory subunits(alpha 2delta, beta and gamma). Six genes encoding alpha1 subunits have been cloned. Cloning and expression of channels has allowed their electrophysiological and pharmacological classification. These studies established that all of these alpha1s are high voltage-activated channels.
The aim of this project is to clone the cardiac low voltage-activated T- type Ca2+ channel. Exciting preliminary studies have identified a novel Ca2+ channel gene expressed in heart. The hypothesis is that this gene encodes a T-type channel.
The specific aims of this project are to: 1) clone the full-length cDNA, 2) suppress the expression of native T-type channels in rat neonatal ventricular myocytes, 3) determine the tissue specific expression of this gene (Northerns and in situ hybridizations, 4) express the cDNA in heterologous expression systems and measure the biophysical properties of the channel (single channel conductance, voltage-dependence), and 5) determine the pharmacological properties of the expressed current. The research design uses recombinant DNA techniques to clone T-type channels from human heart tissue and express the cloned channels in both Xenopus laevis oocytes and HEK-293 cells. Electrophysiological methods are used to study the expressed channel at both the single channel and whole cell level. The hypothesis will then be tested by comparing the properties of the cloned channel to that observed from T-type channels in isolated cells.
