Abstract
Publisher Summary This chapter reviews the current understanding of the properties of presynaptic calcium channels and considers how defects in the channels or their interactions might result in pathological abnormalities. Voltage-gated calcium channels stand as the pivotal regulatory element of excitation–secretion coupling at nerve endings in brain. Recent advancement has resulted in an explosive increase in information about the identity of both the calcium channels and the proteins that comprise the neurosecretory machinery. Analysis of calcium channel gene expression has revealed numerous related genes, each of which with splice variants that, in principle, could amount to impressive combinatorial possibilities. The nerve terminal is of particular importance to neuroscientists, because it is the cellular locus where electrical information is transduced to intercellular chemical messages, and calcium channels play a pivotal role in this transduction. Calcium channels, by virtue of regulating excitation–secretion coupling, provide an attractive target for pharmacological management of neuronal activity.
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