Channelopathy Research Paper

Channelopathy is a disease relating to dysfunctional ion channels. The most common ion channels involved include sodium, potassium, calcium and chloride. Ion channels are very important in the neuron. Every Ion channel has its own threshold that has to be reached for action potential to be detected. For example, if resting membrane potential of a neuron is -70 mV and sodium ions are added it would cause the voltage to drift toward -55mV because the equilibrium potential for sodium is +60 mV. However, a few sodium ions would not cause the voltage to change. An extensive amount of sodium ions has to be added to the dendrite of a neuron to drop the voltage to -55 mV. When the membrane potential shifts from -70 mV towards -55 mV it is known as depolarization. Action potential hasn’t completed yet, depolarization and repolarization both have to take place during single action potential. Repolarization takes place with potassium channels that bring the membrane potential back toward -70mV because equilibrium potential of potassium is -89mV. However, because potassium channels
Tinnitus is one of the diseases that can occur as a result of Channelopathy effecting potassium channels. Tinnitus involves hearing sounds where no sounds are present. In physiology of hearing, depolarization occurs from inward movement of potassium and calcium ions. In Tinnitus, potassium channels stay open a lot longer causing depolarization and excessive sound presence even though it is not present. Symptom of Tinnitus include hearing sounds such as ringing, whistling, buzzing, and clicking. Tinnitus is caused by loss of hair cell in cochlea and when these hair cells are damaged, they trigger random electrical impulses to the brain. These impulses cause hearing sounds such as ringing, buzzing and clicking. Tinnitus is a fairly common disease and most of the time it points to a deeper problem such as hearing