Evidence map›Paper›PMID 32559411›Full record

ArticleBiophysical journal2020

Pulsed Electric Fields Can Create Pores in the Voltage Sensors of Voltage-Gated Ion Channels.

Lea Rems, Marina A Kasimova, Ilaria Testa, Lucie Delemotte

Open access · bronzeAbstract read
In one paragraph

Article in Biophysical journal, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 30 papers.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
30citing papers in PubMed
6.2field-weighted citation impact, top 3% of its field
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

30 citing papers in PubMed, 88 citations in OpenAlex.

  1. Article
  2. Focal pulsed field ablation for atrial tachycardia near the phrenic nerve: a two-case experience.Journal of interventional cardiac electrophysiology : an international journal of arrhythmias and pacing · 2026
    Article
  3. NaThe Journal of membrane biology · 2026
    Article
  4. Article
  5. Review
  6. Article
  7. Article
  8. Review
  9. Article
  10. Article
  11. Article
  12. Article
  13. Article
  14. Inactivation of antibiotic-resistant bacteriaFrontiers in microbiology · 2024
    Article
  15. Review
  16. Article
  17. Article
  18. Article
  19. Article
  20. Review
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

4 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.

Lea RemsScience for Life Laboratory, Department of Applied Physics, KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Solna, Sweden.
Marina A KasimovaScience for Life Laboratory, Department of Applied Physics, KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Solna, Sweden.
Ilaria TestaScience for Life Laboratory, Department of Applied Physics, KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Solna, Sweden.
Lucie DelemotteScience for Life Laboratory, Department of Applied Physics, KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Solna, Sweden. Electronic address: lucied@kth.se.
Science for Life Laboratory · SE

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

Pulsed electric fields are increasingly used in medicine to transiently increase the cell membrane permeability via electroporation to deliver therapeutic molecules into the cell. One type of event that contributes to this increase in membrane permeability is the formation of pores in the membrane lipid bilayer. However, electrophysiological measurements suggest that membrane proteins are affected as well, particularly voltage-gated ion channels (VGICs). The molecular mechanisms by which the electric field could affects these molecules remain unidentified. In this study, we used molecular dynamics simulations to unravel the molecular events that take place in different VGICs when exposing them to electric fields mimicking electroporation conditions. We show that electric fields can induce pores in the voltage-sensor domains (VSDs) of different VGICs and that these pores form more easily in some channels than in others. We demonstrate that poration is more likely in VSDs that are more hydrated and are electrostatically more favorable for the entry of ions. We further show that pores in VSDs can expand into so-called complex pores, which become stabilized by lipid headgroups. Our results suggest that such complex pores are considerably more stable than conventional lipid pores, and their formation can lead to severe unfolding of VSDs from the channel. We anticipate that such VSDs become dysfunctional and unable to respond to changes in transmembrane voltage, which is in agreement with previous electrophysiological measurements showing a decrease in the voltage-dependent transmembrane ionic currents after pulse treatment. Finally, we discuss the possibility of activation of VGICs by submicrosecond-duration pulses. Overall, our study reveals a new, to our knowledge, mechanism of electroporation through membranes containing VGICs.

Indexed as

Lipid BilayersMolecular Dynamics SimulationCell Membrane PermeabilityElectroporationIon ChannelsIon ChannelsLipid Bilayers

Identifiers

PMID32559411
PMCPMC7335976
OpenAlexW3034929865

What Socratic holds

Textmetadata
LicenceCC BY-NC-ND
Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

None linked

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the Socratic graph.