Advantages of voltage-gated ion channels as drug targets.

Many human diseases result from over- or underactivity in one or more critical physiologic systems. One of the foremost challenges in modern drug discovery is the identification and selection of cellular proteins that can be specifically targeted with therapeutic agents in order to normalize aberrant processes/systems. Suitable drug targets must be validated in the human disease state and ideally, the targeted protein will fulfill similar physiologic and pathologic functions in humans and at least one animal species so that in vivo efficacy and toxicology assays with some predictive clinical relevance may be developed. Nowadays, drug targets must also be amenable to high-throughput screening so that novel molecules, which are capable of modifying cellular protein function, can be identified in large libraries of compounds. Voltage-gated ion channels satisfy many of these requirements and, as a class, are viewed as promising drug targets. Nevertheless, despite their relevance to human disease, voltage-gated ion channels remain considerably underexploited. Therein lie some of the opportunities and advantages associated with voltage-gated ion channels as drug targets.