Application of QPatch 16 for drug screening of ligand-gated ion channels

The QPatch 16 screening station is a second generation automated patch-clamp system based on planar silicon chip technology. QPatch 16 has previously been employed for a series of screening studies on a number of voltage-gated ion channels (e.g. hERG, KCNQ4, Na_v1.2, Na_v1.4 and Na_v1.5). Recently, ligand-gated ion channels (LGIC) including GABAA, nAChR and ASIC have been targeted with QPatch 16. We here report a study in which the GABAA receptor (α1 β2 γ2) was targeted with 4-5 concentrations of an agonist (GABA), an antagonist (bicuculline) and a modulator (chlordizepoxide). Subsequently we report a study on acid sensitive ion channels (ASIC1a) in which the effect of pH, i.e. protons which serve as the ligand, was examined.