Altered and dynamic ion selectivity of K+ channels in cell development and excitability

K+ channels play a key role in regulating cellular excitability. It was thought that the strong K+ selectivity of these channels was static, only altered by mutations in their selectivity filter, which can cause severe genetic disorders. Recent studies demonstrate that selectivity of K+ channels can also exhibit dynamic changes. Under acidic conditions or in low extracellular K+ concentrations, the two-pore domain K+ channel (K-2P) TWIK1 becomes permeable to Na+, shifting from an inhibitory role to an excitatory role. This phenomenon is responsible for the paradoxical depolarization of human cardiomyocytes in pathological hypokalemia, and therefore may contribute to cardiac arrhythmias. In other cell types, TWIK1 produces depolarizing leak currents under physiological conditions. Dynamic ion selectivity also occurs in other K-2P channels. Here we review evidence that dynamic selectivity of K-2P channels constitutes a new regulatory mechanism of cellular excitability, whose significance is only now becoming appreciated.