• Jane E Hartung, Jamie K Moy, Emanuel Loeza-Alcocer, Vidhya Nagarajan, Ruth Jostock, Thomas Christoph, Wolfgang Schroeder, and Michael S Gold.
• Department of Neurobiology, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, PA, United States.
• Pain. 2022 Jun 1; 163 (6): e774e785e774-e785.

AbstractVoltage-gated calcium channels in sensory neurons underlie processes ranging from neurotransmitter release to gene expression and remain a therapeutic target for the treatment of pain. Yet virtually all we know about voltage-gated calcium channels has been obtained through the study of rodent sensory neurons and heterologously expressed channels. To address this, high voltage-activated (HVA) Ca2+ currents in dissociated human and rat dorsal root ganglion neurons were characterized with whole-cell patch clamp techniques. The HVA currents from both species shared basic biophysical and pharmacological properties. However, HVA currents in human neurons differed from those in the rat in at least 3 potentially important ways: (1) Ca2+ current density was significantly smaller, (2) the proportion of nifedipine-sensitive currents was far greater, and (3) a subpopulation of human neurons displayed relatively large constitutive current inhibition. These results highlight the need to for the study of native proteins in their native environment before initiating costly clinical trials.Copyright © 2021 International Association for the Study of Pain.

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