Origins, roles and mechanisms of ion selectivity for voltage-gated sodium and calcium channels

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The electrical signals which control bodily functions are shaped by ion flux through highly ion selective voltage-gated channels. Our current understanding of how ion channels are ion selective is understood by Roderick Mackinnon’s Nobel Prize winning X-ray crystal structure of the potassium-selective channel. Ion selectivity in potassium channels involves the narrowest point of the hourglass shaped ion selective pore where there are critical ion selectivity filter residues.