Talk:G protein-gated ion channel

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This article was the subject of a Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment, between 31 August 2021 and 16 December 2021. Further details are available on the course page. Student editor(s): Cgeneb09.

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Comment 1
Hey guys,

I think your article is really well written and informative. The image you included is really helpful. I found your clinical significance section interesting, especially regarding breast cancer. I found another article indicating that mutations in G-protein-coupled receptor genes can cause them to be protooncogenes. The article looks pretty specific, but I don't think you would need to go into great detail, just mentioning the implication of tumorigenicity in your article would be interesting. The article is called Again, this is just a suggestion.

chengkd (talk) 8:38, 28 November 2009 (UTC)

Response to Comment 1
Thanks for the input. I took a look at the article you suggested and have decided it is not really pertinent to our article. Our article is focused on the G protein-gated ion channels, not G protein coupled receptors (GPCR). From the article you suggested and further research, we cannot determine whether the alpha 1B-adrenergic receptor follows a pathway which signals specifically, a downstream ion channel rather than an effector protein.

CafeDelMar (talk) 19:42, 5 December 2009 (UTC)

Comment 2
This is a well put together article overall. You did an especially good job of identifying and distinguishing the different types of G protein-gated ion channels from one another and showing how their roles can differ greatly from one another. I think a beginner looking to gain knowledge on the subject would find your article to be useful for this explanation. Perhaps it could be made more useful with the addition of some external links to create a jumping-off point for further research. One point that could be added to make the article more complete would be how the functions of G protein-gated ion channels can vary under different conditions. One article that you may find useful concerning the acid sensitivity of a number of different types of ion channels (written by P. Holzer and published in the Handbook of experimental pharmacology) can be found here.

CharlesWCII talk 19:15, 28 November 2009 (UTC)

Response to Comment 2
Your suggestion is very interesting. Although the link you provided mentioned G protein-coupled receptors rather than G protein-gated ion channels, which is the focus of our article, it provoked my curiosity. I looked into whether or not specific acid-sensitive G protein gated ion channels existed. With some research, I was able to find information that suggested such acid-sensitive ion channels mediated by G proteins did exist. I found that the inhibition of Muscarinic ACh receptor M1 affected the current flowing through the acid-sensitive ion channel (ASIC) ASIC1a and that the receptor is G protein bound. Revisions in the article have been made.

CafeDelMar (talk) 21:25, 5 December 2009 (UTC)

Comment 3
I also enjoyed the article- it is very well written. I did have a few small suggestions: In "Function" section, it was a little confused by the first sentence "G protein-gated ion channels are a family of proteins involved in the direct activation of specific ion channels located in the plasma membrane of neurons." It gives the impression that ion channels activate ion channels which as the article makes clear, isn't the case. Also, I was unsure what the sentence "...which results in the departure of the βγ-subunit complex (Gβγ)" exactly. Additionally, it might also be helpful to include some specific examples of the muscular and neurological diseases caused by mutations.

Rabihgeha (talk) 20:27, 28 November 2009 (UTC)Rabihgeha

Response to Comment 3
Thanks for your interest in our article. Clarifications have been for the sentences which were not so clear. As for specific examples of the muscular and neurological diseases caused by mutations in the G proteins associated with G protein-gated ion channels, I was unable to find any relevant primary literature. The vast majority of scientific articles relating G proteins and diseases discuss GPCRs rather than the G proteins themselves or their target ion channels. We may even end up removing the first statement in the "clinical significance" section of our article.

CafeDelMar (talk) 04:30, 6 December 2009 (UTC)

Comment 4
Hi guys! I read through your wiki article and found it very informative and well written. I thought for the most part it was easy to understand and the picture was a good addition- it helps to conceptualize everything you wrote in the article. Great job overall! One structural suggestion I would offer is in the section labeled "TYPE" it may be clearer if you had a consistent TYPE-STRUCTURE-FUNCTION-SUBTYPES motif; it may be harder to find information on some types of receptors but adding that consistency may make it easier to follow and understand the difference between the 4 types. Furthermore, after doing some outside research on the topic and reading some articles, I found information about G-protein coupled receptors being the target of many therapeutic drugs, I believe one article cited it as a target for up to 50% of marketed drugs. GPCR-signaling is another topic with which you could also expand your article. One such article titled "Towards a systems biology approach of G protein-coupled receptor signalling: Challenges and expectations" by Domitille Heitzler and others discusses how research of GPCR-signaling can lead to a discovery of new drug classes. Here is the link to the article: I hope you find my comments helpful!

Fdemsas (talk) 07:57, 29 November 2009 (UTC)

Response to Comment 4
Thanks for the suggestions. The article has been slightly reorganized--I hope this makes reading easier. As for the article you found, it refers to GPCRs rather than G protein-gated ion channels, a mistake others have made in their suggestions as well. In any case, I took the basic idea of your suggested article and looked for studies of G protein-gated ion channel modulators which could have therapeutic use. I did find some information on this and it has been incorporated into the article as the second paragraph under "clinical significance".

CafeDelMar (talk) 00:01, 6 December 2009 (UTC)

Comment 5
Great article - to echo what may have been touched upon by previous comments, I believe a section on current research could add to your article. You may also choose to integrate this within "Clinical Significance", possibly outlining how current clinical research is looking to integrate the G protein-gated ion channel as a target for drug therapy. The IUPHAR database (IUPHAR-DB) integrates peer-reviewed pharmacological, chemical, genetic, functional and anatomical information on voltage-gated-like ion channel subunits encoded by the human, rat and mouse genomes. This resource offers further information on current research and clinical significance. A journal article titled: IUPHAR-DB: the IUPHAR database of G protein-coupled receptors and ion channels, provides links to several resources.



You may also want to point out the difference between G protein Receptors in the introduction, to prevent any confusion with G protein coupled receptors

Patrick Raab 03:35, 30 November 2009 (UTC)

Response to Comment 5
Thank you for your input. We're glad that you were able to recognize the difference between GPCRs in general and G protein-gated ion channels. I edited the overview of function section to make the delineation more clear. Your idea about G protein-gated ion channels as targets for drug research really piqued my interest and I am going to do more research on that topic. The database article noted above mentions a lot about GPCRs and ion channels in their respective categories, but does not bridge the two protein classes very much. I looked into the database itself-- its a really great resource. It allowed me to search for g protein-gated channels specifically and i found a lot of results. One of which was the muscarinic acetylcholine receptor that we mentioned (The database actually cited the direct source we used in our article). But what I did find is that there are a couple proteins mentioned that inhibit or activate GIRK current. I researched a couple of these further (orexin and sst) and decided to add to our article accordingly.

Bellamen ( talk ) 02:42, 07 December 2009 (UTC)

Comment 6
Well written article. It is very clear and and the picture is definitely of assistance. One thing I thought you could touch up on was the section describing the relationship with chloride and sodium channel activity. I see that a lot is still not understood but I found an article that highlights a few more relationships G protein-gated ion channels may have with the individual channels. For instance, it give two possible mechanisms in which the G protein-gated ion channel inhibits the cardiac fast sodium currents. Just thought it might help. Otherwise, well done! Article can be found:

Nalvarez (talk) 17:49, 29 November 2009 (UTC)

Response to Comment 6
Thanks for the article. After reading it and doing some more research, I ended up putting in more information for the Na+ and Cl- channels. While there was not and still is not a lot of information about these channels, I think the extra information I was able to add strengthened our article. Thanks again.

MichelleMaglio (talk) 18:51, 6 December 2009 (UTC)

Comment 7
This article is good thus far. However, I came across another reference you may want to incorporate into the article concerning the precise role of G proteins in regulating ion channels. I know you touched upon this in the "Function" section, but the article I found also discusses how G proteins mediate ion channel regulation by stimulating or inhibiting phosphorylation pathways, initiating intracellular cascades leading to the elevation of cytosolic calcium levels, or by producing various lipid-derived compounds. I think this information would be a beneficial addition to what you have already discussed on the page. Here is the link:

Bartond (talk) 00:04, 30 November 2009 (UTC)

Response to Comment 7
Thanks for your comment. I actually found that source myself and we did use it a couple of times throughout our article, but all were in the specific section for certain ions. The parts about inhibition of phosphorylation pathways and production of lipid-derived compounds seems to deal more with G protein-coupled receptors in general. Also, although these cascades do affect ion channels, these ion channels themselves are not directly gated by G proteins. I think your idea to incorporate this source into the "Function" section is a good one and I will add to this section a bit about the different ways G proteins mediate ion channel regulation.

Bellamen ( talk ) 06:38, 07 December 2009 (UTC)

Comment 8
I thought your article is very well done I just had a few comments. I think the wording in the Function section is a little awkward and may just want to rework that paragraph. In addition I thought maybe there could be more expansion on why Leu and His are such important residues in the protein and also what residues are important for interacting with K+. I also felt that the section on Calcium channels could use some expansion and I felt a little confused in the explanation. Also may want some concluding paragraph to some up current studies and why it is important. EPalmquist (talk) 00:19, 30 November 2009 (UTC)

Response to Comment 8
Thanks for the comment. We've expanded the article to include more current studies and how they apply to treating diseases that involve G protein-gated ion channels. We've also re-worded the paragraphs you mentioned to hopefully make it easier to read. MichelleMaglio (talk) 00:45, 7 December 2009 (UTC)

Comment 9
You guys put a good amount of effort and research on this topic. I think your organization of the different types of the G protein-gated ion channels was good, especially because there are so many types! However, the article has a repetition of "function" for calcium channels; you can probably throw that as a subsection in the main Function section to make the organization more cohesive. In the Functions, you should add the macro-function of G protein-gated ion channels of responding to metabotropic receptors. As we went over recently in class, metabotropic, specifically G protein-coupled receptors play a big role in synapses, and obviously G protein-gated ion channels are the second part of metabotropic synapse signal cascades. Your article can also use a "Future research" section after Clinical significance to tie in literature regarding research on the channels and their associated pathologies. Another cool clinical significance of G protein-coupled receptors is pain-killing. I found two articles relating GIRK's role in analgesia: Cool beans, great job! (Wangtron (talk) 01:31, 30 November 2009 (UTC))

Response to Comment 9
I liked your suggestion to change/merge the funtion section in the beginning with the calcium channels function section. Instead, I rearranged and reworded the overview of mechanisms section as to remove the repetition. As for your suggestion of adding the macro-function of responding to metabotropic receptors, that is the function of specific MGluRs and their respective cascades. This is indirect activation as noted in the Glutamate receptors article, where it is stated: "Metabotropic glutamate receptors (mGluRs) indirectly activate ion-channels on the plasma membrane through a signaling cascade that involves G proteins". This cascade does not therefore indicate the use of an ion channel that is directly G protein-gated, but an ion channel that is affected by a protein or other molecule created by a signal transduction pathway, an indirect method of activation. Nonetheless you point is a good one and I will definitely add information about glutamate receptors to the overview of mechanisms section. The two sources that you found are both great and I will incorporate them at the end of our article. Thank you for finding those for us that was a really big help.

Bellamen ( talk ) 07:51, 07 December 2009 (UTC)

Comment 10
I agree completely with some of the previous comments. I thought your article was extremely informative and you guys have done an exceptional job at making the article readable for even beginners that are not familiar with the topic. I especially found the section on the relationship between intoxification and GIRK channels to be especially interesting. My main suggestion, in agreeance with what has been said above,would be to add a little more structure to certain areas of the article and expand upon certain topics that were only briefly discussed. For instance, I believe the subject of "Clinincal Significance" is a very interesting topic and that you guys could improve this section by giving brief explanations as to how the G-protein channel is affected in specific neurological and muscular diseases. I researched the topic a little bit and realize that there are many disorders associated with G-protein channel malformations. However I believe the that by giving specific examples of disorders such as cystic fibrosis or myotonic dystrophy and describing how they relate to malformations with G proteins that the reader will be able to connect better with the importance of G-protein channels. You also may want to consider expanding your article and adding subtopics that describe either the protein cascades that are activated by G-protein (such as cAMP cascde)or a section on how new drugs are designed to target G-proteins and their future potential for healing diseases. You may find this article relating to how blocking erythrocyte G-protein cascades can lead to the a reduction in malaria useful in describing new drug therapies:



Millerwy (talk) 03:03, 30 November 2009 (UTC)

Response to Comment 10
Thanks for the article. I read it and decided it does not really pertain to our subject matter. It talks more about G proteins and not their interactions with ion channels. But I agree with you in that we should expand our article with information about drugs designed to target G proteins that affect ion channels. Thanks for the suggestion and I will hopefully find more research on it to add. MichelleMaglio (talk) 20:55, 6 December 2009 (UTC)

Concluding Comments (as of the end of the BI481 project)
Thank you all who have commented and offered suggestions for the improvement of our article. Writing this article was a great experience for us and we hope it is an enjoyable read. Research for this article was pretty difficult because, as many of you have evidently found out, running a search specifically for G protein-gated ion channels on the web does not turn up a whole lot of results. Rather, a lot of information on GPCRs and other G proteins turned up. Much of the content of this article was found in scientific articles that touched on ion channels that relied on G protein activation (hence, all the material on GIRKs). I'm sure there is a lot out there that we missed just due to the broad scope of "G protein-gated ion channels" but we managed to get all the basics and some specifics covered. The final section, "Clinical significance and ongoing research" serves as our conclusion since it discusses relatively new discoveries (some from 2009) and potential therapeutic uses for G protein-gated ion channels. Thanks again for your contributions.

CafeDelMar (talk) 09:43, 7 December 2009 (UTC) Bellamen ( talk ) 09:44, 07 December 2009 (UTC) MichelleMaglio (talk) 16:09, 7 December 2009 (UTC)


 * And a comment from an outside editor: Very nice article work, folks! Thanks for this contribution to Wikipedia. --Tryptofish (talk) 16:46, 7 December 2009 (UTC)


 * Echoing Tryptofish, nice work! Since the article is reasonably complete and appropriately referenced I have promoted the article from start to B class, the highest rating an article can achieve outside a formal review.  Cheers.  Boghog (talk) 22:13, 7 December 2009 (UTC)

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