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An Alternative to Conventional Immunosuppression: Small-Molecule Inhibitors of K_v1.3 Channels

Department of Biophysics and Cell Biology and Cell Biophysics, Research Group of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Research Center for Molecular Medicine, University of Debrecen, Hungary

Correspondence: Address correspondence to SD. E-mail dami{at}jaguar.dote.hu; fax +36-52-412-623.

SUMMARY

The advent of clinically useful immunosuppressive drugs that block T-cell activation has given hope to many with autoimmune disorders or organ transplants. These drugs, however, are not without potentially life-threatening side effects, including kidney disease and increased incidence of infection or cancer. The identification of ion channels in T cells has raised the possibility that channel blockers exhibiting high specificity might become new therapeutics in the never-ending search for better immunosuppressants. Recent results published in Molecular Pharmacology have characterized new psoralen-derived compounds that specifically block the K_v3.1 channel in T effector (T_EM) cells while sparing with the activation of naïve or T central memory cells. Thus, T_EM cell–mediated autoimmune diseases such as multiple sclerosis or Type I diabetes mellitus might be successfully treated by these new compounds.

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