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GABA Receptors Can Depolarize the Neuronal Membrane Potential via Quantum Tunneling of Chloride Ions: A Quantum Mathematical Study
GABA (gamma-aminobutyric acid) receptors represent the major inhibitory receptors in the nervous system and their inhibitory effects are mediated by the influx of chloride ions that tends to hyperpolarize the resting membrane potential. However, GABA receptors can depolarize the resting membrane pot...
Autores principales: | , , , , , , |
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
MDPI
2022
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Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8998136/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35406709 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/cells11071145 |
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author | Nawafleh, Sager Qaswal, Abdallah Barjas Suleiman, Aiman Alali, Obada Zayed, Fuad Mohammed Al-Adwan, Mohammad Abu Orabi Bani Ali, Mo’ath |
author_facet | Nawafleh, Sager Qaswal, Abdallah Barjas Suleiman, Aiman Alali, Obada Zayed, Fuad Mohammed Al-Adwan, Mohammad Abu Orabi Bani Ali, Mo’ath |
author_sort | Nawafleh, Sager |
collection | PubMed |
description | GABA (gamma-aminobutyric acid) receptors represent the major inhibitory receptors in the nervous system and their inhibitory effects are mediated by the influx of chloride ions that tends to hyperpolarize the resting membrane potential. However, GABA receptors can depolarize the resting membrane potential and thus can also show excitatory effects in neurons. The major mechanism behind this depolarization is mainly attributed to the accumulation of chloride ions in the intracellular compartment. This accumulation leads to increase in the intracellular chloride concentration and depolarize the Nernst potential of chloride ions. When the membrane potential is relatively hyperpolarized, this will result in a chloride efflux instead of influx trying to reach their depolarized equilibrium potential. Here, we propose different mechanism based on a major consequence of quantum mechanics, which is quantum tunneling. The quantum tunneling model of ions is applied on GABA receptors and their corresponding chloride ions to show how chloride ions can depolarize the resting membrane potential. The quantum model states that intracellular chloride ions have higher quantum tunneling probability than extracellular chloride ions. This is attributed to the discrepancy in the kinetic energy between them. At physiological parameters, the quantum tunneling is negligible to the degree that chloride ions cannot depolarize the membrane potential. Under certain conditions such as early neuronal development, gain-of-function mutations, stroke and trauma that can lower the energy barrier of the closed gate of GABA receptors, the quantum tunneling is enhanced so that the chloride ions can depolarize the resting membrane potential. The major unique feature of the quantum tunneling mechanism is that the net efflux of chloride ions is attained without the need for intracellular accumulation of chloride ions as long as the energy barrier of the gate is reduced but still higher than the kinetic energy of the chloride ion as a condition for quantum tunneling to take place. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-8998136 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2022 |
publisher | MDPI |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-89981362022-04-12 GABA Receptors Can Depolarize the Neuronal Membrane Potential via Quantum Tunneling of Chloride Ions: A Quantum Mathematical Study Nawafleh, Sager Qaswal, Abdallah Barjas Suleiman, Aiman Alali, Obada Zayed, Fuad Mohammed Al-Adwan, Mohammad Abu Orabi Bani Ali, Mo’ath Cells Article GABA (gamma-aminobutyric acid) receptors represent the major inhibitory receptors in the nervous system and their inhibitory effects are mediated by the influx of chloride ions that tends to hyperpolarize the resting membrane potential. However, GABA receptors can depolarize the resting membrane potential and thus can also show excitatory effects in neurons. The major mechanism behind this depolarization is mainly attributed to the accumulation of chloride ions in the intracellular compartment. This accumulation leads to increase in the intracellular chloride concentration and depolarize the Nernst potential of chloride ions. When the membrane potential is relatively hyperpolarized, this will result in a chloride efflux instead of influx trying to reach their depolarized equilibrium potential. Here, we propose different mechanism based on a major consequence of quantum mechanics, which is quantum tunneling. The quantum tunneling model of ions is applied on GABA receptors and their corresponding chloride ions to show how chloride ions can depolarize the resting membrane potential. The quantum model states that intracellular chloride ions have higher quantum tunneling probability than extracellular chloride ions. This is attributed to the discrepancy in the kinetic energy between them. At physiological parameters, the quantum tunneling is negligible to the degree that chloride ions cannot depolarize the membrane potential. Under certain conditions such as early neuronal development, gain-of-function mutations, stroke and trauma that can lower the energy barrier of the closed gate of GABA receptors, the quantum tunneling is enhanced so that the chloride ions can depolarize the resting membrane potential. The major unique feature of the quantum tunneling mechanism is that the net efflux of chloride ions is attained without the need for intracellular accumulation of chloride ions as long as the energy barrier of the gate is reduced but still higher than the kinetic energy of the chloride ion as a condition for quantum tunneling to take place. MDPI 2022-03-28 /pmc/articles/PMC8998136/ /pubmed/35406709 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/cells11071145 Text en © 2022 by the authors. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). |
spellingShingle | Article Nawafleh, Sager Qaswal, Abdallah Barjas Suleiman, Aiman Alali, Obada Zayed, Fuad Mohammed Al-Adwan, Mohammad Abu Orabi Bani Ali, Mo’ath GABA Receptors Can Depolarize the Neuronal Membrane Potential via Quantum Tunneling of Chloride Ions: A Quantum Mathematical Study |
title | GABA Receptors Can Depolarize the Neuronal Membrane Potential via Quantum Tunneling of Chloride Ions: A Quantum Mathematical Study |
title_full | GABA Receptors Can Depolarize the Neuronal Membrane Potential via Quantum Tunneling of Chloride Ions: A Quantum Mathematical Study |
title_fullStr | GABA Receptors Can Depolarize the Neuronal Membrane Potential via Quantum Tunneling of Chloride Ions: A Quantum Mathematical Study |
title_full_unstemmed | GABA Receptors Can Depolarize the Neuronal Membrane Potential via Quantum Tunneling of Chloride Ions: A Quantum Mathematical Study |
title_short | GABA Receptors Can Depolarize the Neuronal Membrane Potential via Quantum Tunneling of Chloride Ions: A Quantum Mathematical Study |
title_sort | gaba receptors can depolarize the neuronal membrane potential via quantum tunneling of chloride ions: a quantum mathematical study |
topic | Article |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8998136/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35406709 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/cells11071145 |
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