Talk:Sodium channel

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Can we please include VGNa channels as an abbreviation — Preceding unsigned comment added by 130.56.48.232 (talk) 12:08, 11 March 2013 (UTC)

this page is a little problematic because I don't know anything about sodium channels that may exist in cells other than neurons. Plus, this article is mainly just about voltage-gated na channels. If you can help by adding info about other types of na channels, please do. I don't know, should this page be just "voltage-gated na channels"? That would be weird since there'd be no generic na channel page. --Delldot 01:05, 11 October 2005 (UTC)

• I agree with this comment to an extent; this page does focus mostly on voltage-gated Na channels. However, those are arguably the most important type (at least from a medical standpoint), and many of their features are common to the other Na channels (e.g. selectivity). Maybe this should just be stated at some point in the article.--Jfurr1981 01:14, 11 October 2005 (UTC)

• Those of us that work on channels consider "sodium channel" to be equivalent with "voltage-gated sodium channel." You'll note in some of my modifications that I differentiated between Na⁺ channels and those that simply conduct Na⁺ along with other ions such as Ca²⁺. We would refer to this later class as non-selective cation channels (TRP channels are an example of these, I recall). We also don't normally call receptors channels. Yes, ionotropic receptors do conduct ions, but they're considered a different type of protein. I can easily see how this is confusing to those new to the area. --Dpryan 21:29, 24 July 2006 (UTC)

• What about "epithelial sodium channel (ENaC)" which is not voltage-gated and has different molecular structure than voltage-gated sodium channel? ENaC is very important for sodium regulation in our body and related to hypertension. I think this page should move to "volgate-gated sodium channel". Hchoe 02:06, 21 January 2007 (UTC)

• If you polled 100 neuroscientists and asked them to describe what a sodium channel is at least 99 of them would describe the voltage-gated kind and not ENaCs. Having said that, there should be a reference to ENaCs at the top like, "Sodium channel typically refers to voltage-gated sodium channels but can also describe Epithelial sodium channels (ENaC), the latter described in a seperate article". I'll add something like that to the top in a couple days if no one beats me to it. --Dpryan 20:32, 22 January 2007 (UTC)

• I agree with the comment that most neuroscientists think only the voltage-gated sodium channel. But if you polled 100 nephrologists or 100 gastroenenterologists, the answer would be different. Hchoe 07:58, 4 February 2007 (UTC)

As someone just learning this stuff, the inconsistent terminology is a big problem. "Voltage-gated ion channel sodium channels"? That's a mouthful. All of the ion/sodium/voltage-gated adjective use needs to be looked over by someone. --JMD 05:15, 21 February 2006 (UTC)

See the "Ion_channel" subsection 2.1 Diversity and activation. -- Boris 17:48, 21 February 2006 (UTC)

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Note: I've recently made a large overhaul of this page. There are a number of things that should be added however. Firstly, someone should write a more in depth blurb about how gating works (I work on K+ channels so I don't know enough details to do it properly). It would also be beneficial if someone that does Na+ channel structure function experiments could start to write-up what's known about that. Finally, someone needs to add a nice picture of one of the channels. I could probably hack one together but it wouldn't look very good. If someone reading this is good with image creation, I can send to them what the thing should look like and they can create/upload a novel one (to avoid copyright infringement). If I bump into a Na⁺ channel person I'll try and con them writing some additions. --Dpryan 21:29, 24 July 2006 (UTC)

Move?

Would anyone object to moving this page to Sodium channel? "Sodium ion channel" sounds kind of awkward to me. delldot | talk 20:01, 9 January 2007 (UTC)

I would encourage such a move, we only ever call the things sodium channels anyway. --Dpryan 22:57, 9 January 2007 (UTC)

OK, since no one has objected, I'm gonna go ahead. If there's a problem we can discuss it and possibly move it back. delldot | talk 01:23, 16 January 2007 (UTC)

Selectivity Filter

It's my understanding that as an ion passes through the selectivity filter its hydration is shedded. However, the text reads something to the effect of "one sodium ion and one water." This doesn't sound right but I could be mistaken. Can anyone add illumination? Insert-Belltower 03:56, 5 February 2007 (UTC)

Actually both points of view are correct. Currently there are no crystallographic structures of sodium channels, but their structure is thought to resemble potassium channels for which a number of crystallographic structures are available. The 1k4c potassium channel crystallographic structure pictured here shows 7 potassium ions or water molecules (from the electron density it is impossible to distinguish between the two) shown as green balls. The bottom potassium ion/water molecule is surrounded by eight water molecules and could be said to be fully hydrated. The next four green spheres (designated as occupying positions 1, 2, 3, and 4) are potassium ions/water molecules each surrounded by eight oxygen atoms from the protein and are fully water desolvated (and "resolvated" by the channel). However as ions flow through the channel, it is believed for electrostatic reasons that positions 1-4 are alternatively occupied by water and potassium. That is positions 1 and 3 are first occupied by water and positions 2 and 4 by potassium and then vice versa as ions flow through the channel. So effectively one water molecule passes through the channel for each potassium ion but at the same time, each potassium ion is fully desolvated. Boghog2 18:35, 19 June 2007 (UTC)

Ligand gated channels - change title?

Most of the information on this page is about voltage-gated sodium channels, and for convenience this page was titled "sodium channels" instead of the more precise term "voltage-gated sodium channels". Therefore it is necessary to also mention the other sodium channels, such as the ligand gated, but there are also mechanical gated, thermal gated, chemical gated sodium channels, with a completely different structure and pharmacology. All these channels differ significantly in their structure, gating and pharmacology from the voltage-gated sodium channels.

There are some solutions to the problem: A. rename the page to "voltage-gated sodium channels" and take out the sections on the other channels. B. keep the title sodium channels, and make it a way larger page, with tons of new information that needs to be added.

I would prefer solution A., as every channel mentioned here has a quite large research field of its own. —Preceding unsigned comment added by X8zWAfi (talk • contribs) 07:42, 5 May 2009 (UTC)

I agree with solution A in principle, but sodium channel should still exist as a disambiguation page, with contents similar to the lede of this article, plus a set of wikilinks to subtopic-specific articles. I'm not sure that there is enough material on ligand-gated channels here to justify splitting yet, though. Looie496 (talk) 14:15, 5 May 2009 (UTC)

Article is unclear about sodium channels in non-humans

After reading this article, I am unclear whether it is referring to sodium channels in humans, or whether the information is general to other species. The table only lists human channels. Is the cartoon of the molecule specific to humans? If this article only talks about human sodium channels, then it should be expanded to include other species, because invertebrates like squid have been so important in the experimental study of voltage-gated ion channels. Oanjao (talk) 20:59, 21 October 2009 (UTC)

The cartoon depicts the structure of sodium channels regardless of the species. The table contains links to the sodium channel subtypes (including both internal Wikipedia gene/protein articles and external HUGO gene links). While the emphasis of each of these linked articles is on the human gene/protein, it is not restricted to humans. For example, the infobox in the Gene Wiki articles in turn contains links to the mouse ortholog as well as HomoloGene links which contains a list the corresponding genes in other species. I agree that the article should be modified to make clearer the species distribution of sodium channels. Cheers. Boghog (talk) 02:31, 22 October 2009 (UTC)

More general reader friendliness please!

I came across voltage-gated sodium channels while reading about conotoxin, and I clicked just to get an idea what I was reading about. Unfortunately, I did not. I made it a point to read through the whole article, but every single clause in every single sentence contained words and concepts that I could not understand without reading a whole lot of other articles. Reading through the discussion forum, I was impressed that the persons taking care of the article must be very professional and dedicated, but seem to be prfoessionals addressing themselves to other professionals.

As a "man in the street", please take my word for it that the article need to be simplified to be intelligible to the general public.

If at least the intro could state in simple English what is the role of sodium channels in the body, i.e. what is the purpose of guiding sodium ions through cells, the general reader might at least have a general idea. Gfglegal (talk) 07:22, 9 May 2010 (UTC)

Agree that this article suffers from the Wikipedia disease of over-editing to the point of inaccessibility to the lay reader. David Colver (talk) 07:21, 8 January 2014 (UTC)

Sodium LEAK channels

While I very much appreciate the effort & particularly the detail put into this article, as far as I can tell from my readings there are also sodium leak channels, and this article with this existing title should mention them, not just (mostly) voltage-gated sodium channels, no matter that those professionals who routinely deal specifically with voltage-gated channels may commonly refer to the sodium voltage-gated channel as just the sodium channel out of habit, convenience and succinctness. An article titled Sodium channel should speak about all kinds of sodium channels, not just triggered ones. UnderEducatedGeezer (talk) 00:44, 5 March 2018 (UTC)

I'm a student doing a wikieducation linked course and I'm planning on adding some information on sodium leak channels in the coming couple months. I'll likely be referencing Dejian (2011) as a start--OtherwiseDrummer (talk) 16:29, 5 October 2023 (UTC)

Include single channel conductance values

This was something that I couldn't find here on the page. I think it would be great to include either an average single sodium channel conductance or a table with conductances for single sodium channel variants. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Bigcmemmott1 (talk • contribs) 16:46, 19 September 2019 (UTC)

resting, active and inactive; add '(also called closed, open, and inactive)'?

Since the state-terms 'closed, open, and inactive' are used in sub-section 'Gating', would it be ok to add '...(also called closed, open, and inactive)' to the end of the sentence in the lead, "These channels go through three different states called resting, active and inactive states."? UnderEducatedGeezer (talk) 01:20, 30 December 2020 (UTC)

Wiki Education assignment: BYU-Biophysics, CELL 568

This article was the subject of a Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment, between 5 September 2023 and 14 December 2023. Further details are available on the course page. Student editor(s): OtherwiseDrummer (article contribs). Peer reviewers: JoeyD Valle, Rjcam2.

— Assignment last updated by AzulRover (talk) 16:36, 19 October 2023 (UTC)