Development of Ion Channels Expression Systems

Creative Bioarray is dedicated to providing clients with development services of expression systems for a variety of ion channels and transporters using recombinant DNA technology. Our research team aims to advance the study of the structure and function of ion channels to facilitate compound screening and early drug discovery programs.

Introduction

Isolation of membrane proteins for structural and functional analysis has important biological and medical implications. However, some ion channels and transporters typically constitute less than 1% of the total protein content of native biofilms, and this low level of expression coupled with the complexity of the surrounding environment makes their purification and isolation difficult. The cloning and expression of ion channels using recombinant DNA technology provide powerful support for studying an ion channel of interest in the absence of other channels to characterize the function and signaling of this channel.

The use of Xenopus laevis oocytes or transfection of mammalian cell cultures are the two most widely used protocols for functional expression of ion channels, enabling in vitro studies of complex ion channels in a controlled experimental setting. The use of heterologous cells permits a flexible definition of subunit composition or stoichiometry and allows the characterization of engineered mutations or chimeric constructs. Therefore, the development of efficient heterologous expression systems for ion channels will greatly facilitate the study of the function, subunit binding, regulation, and trafficking of channel proteins.

Fig. 1 Experimental paradigms for heterologous expression of ion channels. (Tapper, 2003)

Our Services

Our research team has made a lot of efforts in recent years to selectively introduce recombinant complementary DNA into cells lacking high expression of ion channels or transporters to help our clients gain a deep understanding of the structure-function relationship of ion channels. Our ion channel expression services help clients develop high-quality and reliable expression systems and fine-tune expression conditions and assess the quality of expressed proteins. We offer the possibility to overexpress ion channels of interest without affecting their structures and functions.

• Development of optimal systems and procedures for expressing native, wild-type, and unmutated target ion channels.
• Evaluation of the reliability of expression systems used to generate specific ion channels.
• Production of a variety of ion channels at best-optimized expression yields, including sodium channels, potassium channels, calcium channels, chloride channels, TRP channels, P2X channels, and more.

We have established a variety of expression systems:

• Prokaryotic systems (E. coli)
• Eukaryotic systems (Insect cells, Yeast, HEK, CHO): phosphorylated, glycosylated proteins

Creative Bioarray provides clients with a one-stop service, from gene synthesis to the establishment of ion channel expression systems and extensive ion channel characterization. The extensive expertise in membrane protein expression and excellent experimental practice of our scientific team, enable us to develop and establish optimized ion channel stable expression systems to fulfill all of your ion channel research needs. If you are interested in our services, please feel free to contact us for more details.

Reference

1. Tapper, A. R.; George, A. L. Heterologous expression of ion channels//Neurogenetics. Springer, Totowa, NJ, 2003: 285-294.