Modeling the gating process in the nicotinic acetylcholine eceptor

CARLOS CONDAT; PEDRO W. LAMBERTI; HUGO ARIAS

Biological and Biophysical Aspects of Ligand-Gated Ion Channel Receptor Superfamilies,

Research Signpost

Año: 2005; p. 109 - 126

In this chapter, we review some of the mathematical models that have been used to describegating in the nicotinic acetylcholine receptor. Among them, we can name the Markov model, where only fewion channel states are characterized; the defect-diffusion model, where many ion channel states are represented; and the fractal model, where infinite ion channel states are considered. In addition, we updated our previous model [Condat and Jäckle (1991) Biophys. J. 55, 915], based on the Läuger prototype, to describe solitary wave excitations that could play a determinant role in channel dynamics.