Molecular Neurophysiology: Ligand Gated Ion Channels in Neurological Diseases

Ligand gated ion channels mediate fast synaptic neurotransmission. Since this is one of the core features of the nervous system, there is hardly a neurological condition without involvement of synaptic neurotransmission. The development of the patch-clamp technique made it possible to investigate synaptic ion channel receptors functionally on the single molecule level as well as within defined neuronal networks. Combined with methods like cell culture, molecular cloning, functional expression, fluorescence microscopy, and ultrafast application techniques, the design of experiments suitable for the investigation…