Dallas Mark L, Deuchars Susan A, Deuchars Jim
School of Medicine, University of Leeds, UK.
Methods Mol Biol. 2008;491:247-55. doi: 10.1007/978-1-59745-526-8_19.
The application of antibodies to living cells has the potential to modulate the function of specific proteins by virtue of their high specificity. This specificity has proven effective in determining the involvement of many proteins in neuronal function where specific agonists and antagonists do not exist, e.g. ion channel subunits. We discuss a way to utilise subunit specific antibodies to target individual channel subunits in electrophysiological experiments to determine functional roles within native neurones. Utilising this approach, we have investigated the role of the voltage-gated potassium channel Kv3.1b subunit within a region of the brainstem important in the regulation of autonomic function. We provide some useful control experiments in order to help validate this method. We conclude that antibodies can be extremely valuable in determining the functions of specific proteins in living neurones in neuroscience research.
由于抗体具有高度特异性，将其应用于活细胞有调节特定蛋白质功能的潜力。这种特异性已被证明在确定许多不存在特异性激动剂和拮抗剂的蛋白质在神经元功能中的作用时很有效，例如离子通道亚基。我们讨论了一种在电生理实验中利用亚基特异性抗体靶向单个通道亚基以确定其在天然神经元中功能作用的方法。利用这种方法，我们研究了电压门控钾通道Kv3.1b亚基在脑干中对自主功能调节很重要的一个区域内的作用。我们提供了一些有用的对照实验以帮助验证该方法。我们得出结论，在神经科学研究中，抗体对于确定活神经元中特定蛋白质的功能可能极具价值。
