A numerical approach to ion channel modelling using whole-cell voltage-clamp recordings and a genetic algorithm.

A numerical approach to ion channel modelling using whole-cell voltage-clamp recordings and a genetic algorithm.

Blog Article

The activity of trans-membrane proteins such as ion channels is the essence of neuronal transmission.The currently most accurate method for determining ion channel kinetic mechanisms is single-channel recording and analysis.Yet, the limitations and complexities in interpreting single-channel recordings discourage many physiologists from using them.

Here we show that a genetic search algorithm in combination with a gradient descent algorithm can be used to fit whole-cell voltage-clamp data to kinetic models with a high degree of accuracy.Previously, ion channel stimulation traces were analyzed one at a time, the results sheepshead bay boats of these analyses being combined to produce a picture of channel kinetics.Here the entire set of traces from all stimulation protocols are analysed simultaneously.

The algorithm was initially tested on simulated current traces produced by several Hodgkin-Huxley-like and Markov chain models of voltage-gated potassium and sodium channels.Currents were also produced by simulating levels of noise expected from actual patch recordings.Finally, the algorithm was used for finding the kinetic parameters of several voltage-gated sodium and potassium channels models by matching its results to data recorded from layer 5 pyramidal neurons animed aniflex complete of the rat cortex in the nucleated outside-out patch configuration.

The minimization scheme gives electrophysiologists a tool for reproducing and simulating voltage-gated ion channel kinetics at the cellular level.