Molecular Pharmacology of K2P Potassium Channels

Potassium channels of the tandem of two-pore-domain (K-2P) family were among the last potassium channels cloned. However, recent progress in understanding their physiological relevance and molecular pharmacology revealed their therapeutic potential and thus these channels evolved as major drug targets against a large variety of diseases. However, after the initial cloning of the fifteen family members there was a lack of potent and/or selective modulators. By now a large variety of K-2P channel modulators (activators and blockers) have been described, especially for TASK-1, TASK-3, TREK-1, TREK2, TRAAK and TRESK channels. Recently obtained crystal structures of K-2P channels, alanine scanning approaches to map drug binding sites, in silico experiments with molecular dynamics simulations (MDs) combined with electrophysiological studies to reveal the mechanism of channel inhibition/activation, yielded a good understanding of the molecular pharmacology of these channels. Besides summarizing drugs that were identified to modulate K-2P channels, the main focus of this article is on describing the differential binding sites and mechanisms of channel modulation that are utilized by the different K-2P channel blockers and activators. (c) 2021 The Author(s). Published by Cell Physiol Biochem Press GmbH&Co. KG