Activation of the human, intermediate-conductance, Ca2+-activated K+ channel by methylxanthines.

This study demonstrated that the methylxanthines, theophylline, IBMX and caffeine, activate the human, intermediate-conductance, Ca2+-activated K+ channel (hIK) stably expressed in HEK-293 cells. Whole-cell voltage-clamp experiments showed that the hIK current increased reversibly and voltage independently after the addition of methylxanthines. In current-clamp experiments, theophylline dose-dependently hyperpolarised the cell membrane from a resting potential of -18 mV to -56 mV. The methylxanthines did not affect large-conductance (BK) or small-conductance (SK2), Ca2+-activated K+ channels, demonstrating that the effects were not secondary to a rise in intracellular Ca2+. However, the activation of hIK by theophylline required an intracellular [Ca2+] above 30 nM. The hIK current was insensitive to 8-bromoadenosine cyclic 3',5'-monophosphate (8-bromo-cAMP), forskolin, 8-bromoguanosine cyclic 3',5'-monophosphate (8-bromo-cGMP) and sodium nitroprusside. Moreover, in the presence of inhibitors of protein kinase A (PKA) or protein kinase G (PKG) theophylline still activated the current. Finally, mutation of the putative PKA/PKG consensus phosphorylation site (Ser334) had no effect on the theophylline-induced activation of hIK. Since the observed activation is independent of changes in PKA/PKG-phosphorylation and of fluctuations in intracellular Ca2+, we suggest that the methylxanthines interact directly with the hIK protein.