Vol. 63, Issue 3, 547-556, March 2003

Molecular Site of Action of the Antiarrhythmic Drug Propafenone at the Voltage-Operated Potassium Channel Kv2.1

Michael Madeja, Thorsten Leicher, Patrick Friederich, Mark A. Punke, Wilhelm Haverkamp, Ulrich Mußhoff, Günter Breithardt, and Erwin-Josef Speckmann

Institute of Physiology (M.M., U.M., E.-J.S.) and Department of Cardiology and Angiology (W.H., G.B.), University of Münster, Münster, Germany; Hertie Foundation, Department of Neuroscience/Multiple Sclerosis, Frankfurt, Germany (M.M.); Center of Molecular Neurobiology, University of Hamburg, Hamburg, Germany (T.L.); and Department of Anesthesiology, University Hospital Hamburg, Hamburg, Germany (P.F., M.A.P.)

The effects of the antiarrhythmic drug propafenone at Kv2.1 channels were studied with wild-type and mutated channels expressed in Xenopus laevis oocytes. Propafenone decreased the Kv2.1 currents in a time- and voltage-dependent manner (decrease of the time constants of current rise, increase of block with the duration of voltage steps starting from a block of less than 19%, increase of block with the amplitude of depolarization yielding a fractional electrical distance  of 0.11 to 0.16). Block of Kv2.1 appeared with application to the intracellular, but not the extracellular, side of membrane patches. In mutagenesis experiments, all parts of the Kv2.1 channel were successively exchanged with those of the Kv1.2 channel, which is much more sensitive to propafenone. The intracellular amino and carboxyl terminus and the intracellular linker S4-S5 reduced the blocking effect of propafenone, whereas the linker S5-S6, as well as the segment S6 of the Kv1.2 channel, abolished it to the value of the Kv1.2 channel. In the linker S5-S6, this effect could be narrowed down to two groups of amino acids (groups 372 to 374 and 383 to 384), which also affected the sensitivity to tetraethylammonium. In segment S6, several amino acids in the intracellularly directed part of the helix significantly reduced propafenone sensitivity. The results suggest that propafenone blocks the Kv2.1 channel in the open state from the intracellular side by entering the inner vestibule of the channel. These results are consistent with a direct interaction of propafenone with the lower part of the pore helix and/or residues of segment S6.