Mark R Tanner, Michael W Pennington, Brayden H Chamberlain, Redwan Huq, Elizabeth J Gehrmann, Teresina Laragione, Pércio S Gulko, Christine Beeton
Fibroblast-like synoviocytes (FLSs) are a key cell type involved in rheumatoid arthritis (RA) progression. We previously identified the KCa1.1 potassium channel (Maxi-K, BK, Slo 1, KCNMA1 ) as a regulator of FLSs and found that KCa1.1 inhibition reduces disease severity in RA animal models. However, systemic KCa1.1 block causes multiple side effects. In this study, we aimed to determine whether the KCa1.1 β 1-3-specific venom peptide blocker iberiotoxin (IbTX) reduces disease severity in animal models of RA without inducing major side effects...
May 2018: Journal of Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics