The use of calcium blockers to study biochemical behaviour of Saccharomyces cerevisiae cells.

Calcium channel blockers, currently used in clinical medicine, from the dihydropyridine class (nifedipine and nimodipine) were used to study biochemical behaviour of Saccharomyces cerevisiae cells. At a concentration of 200 microM, both drugs partially blocked calcium uptake from an extracellular medium. On the other hand, nifedipine (300 microM) induced a collapse of the membrane potential (delta psi) of these cells, while nimodipine, at the same concentration, produced a similar but less intense effect. Probably, the small difference in the chemical structure between these drugs may explain the same effect with different intensity. With these experiments was possible to observe that these microorganisms have type 'L' calcium channels.