Enhancement effects of martentoxin on glioma BK channel and BK channel (α+β1) subtypes

Abstract

Background: BK channels are usually activated by membrane depolarization and cytoplasmic Ca2+. Especially,the activity of BK channel (α+β4) can be modulated by martentoxin, a 37 residues peptide, with Ca2+-dependent manner. gBK channel (glioma BK channel) and BK channel (α+β1) possessed higher Ca2+ sensitivity than other known BK channel subtypes. Methodology and Principal Findings: The present study investigated the modulatory characteristics of martentoxin on these two BK channel subtypes by electrophysiological recordings, cell proliferation and Ca2+ imaging. In the presence of cytoplasmic Ca2+, martentoxin could enhance the activities of both gBK and BK channel (α+β1) subtypes in dose-dependent manner with EC50 of 46.7 nM and 495 nM respectively, while not shift the steady-state activation of these channels. The enhancement ratio of martentoxin on gBK and BK channel (α+β1) was unrelated to the quantitive change of cytoplasmic Ca2+ concentrations though the interaction between martentoxin and BK channel (α+β1) was accelerated under higher cytoplasmic Ca2+. The selective BK pore blocker iberiotoxin could fully abolish the enhancement of these two BK subtypes induced by martentoxin, suggesting that the auxiliary β subunit might contribute to the docking for martentoxin. However, in the absence of cytoplasmic Ca2+, the activity of gBK channel would be surprisingly inhibited by martentoxin while BK channel (α+β1) couldn't be affected by the toxin. Conclusions and Significance: Thus, the results shown here provide the novel evidence that martentoxin could increase the two Ca2+-hypersensitive BK channel subtypes activities in a new manner and indicate that β subunit of these BK channels plays a vital role in this enhancement by martentoxin. © 2011 Tao et al.