Self-Assembled Synthetic Ion Channels and Their Biomedical Applications

Abstract

Ion transport across cell membranes is regulated by ion channel proteins, and plays important roles in many physiological processes such as neuronal signaling, muscle contraction, cardiovascular function, and immune response. Many severe human diseases, such as cystic fibrosis, asthma, hypertension, epilepsy and myocardial infarction, are caused by dysfunction of natural ion channel proteins. Therefore, molecules that modulate the functions of ion channels or regulate ion transport across cell membranes have attracted significant attentions from both academia and pharmaceutical industry. Each year over US$6 billion are generated from the sales of drugs associated with ion channel functions. Most of those drugs control the functions of natural calcium, sodium or potassium channels through direct binding. In this talk, our recent discovery of small molecules that self-assemble into synthetic ion channels that transport small anions or cations across biological membranes will be presented. These synthetic ion channels can transport ions efficiently in living cells and epithelia, independent of natural ion channel proteins. They are easy to synthesize and their pharmacological properties can be readily modified. Explorations on their potential biomedical applications will also be presented.