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Full-Text Articles in Chemistry
Kcnq1/Kcne1 Interaction In The Cardiac Iks Channel And Its Physiological Consequences, Jiajing Xu
Kcnq1/Kcne1 Interaction In The Cardiac Iks Channel And Its Physiological Consequences, Jiajing Xu
McKelvey School of Engineering Theses & Dissertations
Dynamic conformational changes of ion channel proteins during activation gating determine their function as carriers of current. The relationship between these molecular movements and channel function over the physiological timescale of the action potential (AP) has not been fully established due to limitations of existing techniques. We constructed a library of possible cardiac IKs protein conformations and applied a combination of protein segmentation and energy linearization to study this relationship computationally. Simulations reproduced the effects of the beta-subunit (KCNE1) on the alpha-subunit (KCNQ1) dynamics and function, observed in experiments. Mechanistically, KCNE1 increased the probability of “visiting” conducting pore conformations on …
Cyclotron Production And Biomedical Imaging Applications Of The Pet Isotope Manganese-52, Andrew Lake Wooten
Cyclotron Production And Biomedical Imaging Applications Of The Pet Isotope Manganese-52, Andrew Lake Wooten
McKelvey School of Engineering Theses & Dissertations
Manganese is an important element for biomedical research because of its roles as an essential micronutrient and as a neurotoxin from chronic elevated exposure, as well as the role of manganese(II) as a paramagnetic core for contrast agents in T1-weighted magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). Using a radiotracer of manganese provides excellent sensitivity for studying these phenomena, but only 52Mn met the criteria for our experiments: (1) a half-life (t1/2=5.6 days) that was long enough to examine timepoints over several days, (2) a half-life that was short enough to emit sufficient counts for a realistic scan time, and (3) emitted radiation …