Abstract.
Whole-cell, patch-clamp recordings from acutely isolated cerebellar Purkinje neurons demonstrate a two-stage modulation of P-type high-voltage-activated (HVA) Ca2+ current by a constituent of St. John's wort, hyperforin (0.04–0.8 µM). The first stage of modulation was voltage dependent and reversible. It comprised slow-down of the activation kinetics and a shift in the voltage dependence of P-current to more negative voltages. Hyperforin (0.8 µM) shifted the maximum of the current/voltage (I/V) relationship by –8±2 mV. The second, voltage-independent stage of modulation was manifested as a slowly developing inhibition of P-current that could not be reversed within the period of study. Neither form of modulation was abolished by intracellular guanosine 5′-O-(2-thiodiphosphate) (GDPβS) or guanosine 5′-O-(3-thiotriphosphate) (GTPγS) or by strong depolarising pre-pulses, indicating that modulation via guanine nucleotide-binding proteins (G proteins) is not involved in the observed phenomenon. Calmidazolium (0.5 µM), an antagonist of the intracellular Ca2+-binding protein calmodulin significantly inhibited the hyperforin-induced shift of the I/V curve maximum and the slow-down of the activation kinetics. It did not, however, affect the delayed inhibition of P-current, indicating that the two stages of modulation are mediated by separate mechanisms.
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Received after revision and accepted: 6 March 2000
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Fisunov, A., Lozovaya, N., Tsintsadze, T. et al. Hyperforin modulates gating of P-type Ca2+ current in cerebellar Purkinje neurons. Eur J Physiol 440, 427–434 (2000). https://doi.org/10.1007/s004240000306
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s004240000306