Key result
Small-conductance calcium-activated potassium (SK) channels play pivotal roles in atrial fibrillation and heart failure, presenting potential therapeutic targets.
SK channels present a potential therapeutic target for atrial fibrillation given their abundant expression in atrial cells and genetic associations with the disease.
SK channel atrial predominance may guide targeted AF therapies; leaves open ventricular roles in Ca2+-driven arrhythmias.
Small-conductance Ca 2+ -activated K + (SK, K Ca 2, encoded by KCNN genes) channels are unique in that they are gated solely by intracellular Ca 2+ .Therefore, SK channels in cardiomyocytes serve to integrate the beat-to-beat changes in intracellular Ca 2+ and the membrane potentials and are tightly coupled with intracellular Ca 2+ signaling.The expression of SK channels was found to be more abundant in atrial and pacemaking cells compared to ventricular myocytes [1][2][3] .Studies over the past two decades have provided evidence to substantiate the pivotal roles of SK channels, not only in healthy heart but also in diseases including atrial fibrillation (AF) and heart failure (HF).Moreover, genome-wide association analysis (GWAS) reveals the association between AF and genetic variants in KCNN2 and KCNN3 [4][5][6] , supporting the roles of SK channels in human AF.SK channels
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Zhang et al. (2023) conducted a review in Atrial Fibrillation. Small-Conductance Calcium-Activated Potassium (SK) Channels was evaluated. Small-conductance calcium-activated potassium (SK) channels play pivotal roles in atrial fibrillation and heart failure, presenting potential therapeutic targets.
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