K+ channel mutations in adrenal aldosterone-producing adenomas and hereditary hypertension.

Article Details

Citation

Choi M, Scholl UI, Yue P, Bjorklund P, Zhao B, Nelson-Williams C, Ji W, Cho Y, Patel A, Men CJ, Lolis E, Wisgerhof MV, Geller DS, Mane S, Hellman P, Westin G, Akerstrom G, Wang W, Carling T, Lifton RP

K+ channel mutations in adrenal aldosterone-producing adenomas and hereditary hypertension.

Science. 2011 Feb 11;331(6018):768-72. doi: 10.1126/science.1198785.

PubMed ID
21311022 [ View in PubMed
]
Abstract

Endocrine tumors such as aldosterone-producing adrenal adenomas (APAs), a cause of severe hypertension, feature constitutive hormone production and unrestrained cell proliferation; the mechanisms linking these events are unknown. We identify two recurrent somatic mutations in and near the selectivity filter of the potassium (K(+)) channel KCNJ5 that are present in 8 of 22 human APAs studied. Both produce increased sodium (Na(+)) conductance and cell depolarization, which in adrenal glomerulosa cells produces calcium (Ca(2+)) entry, the signal for aldosterone production and cell proliferation. Similarly, we identify an inherited KCNJ5 mutation that produces increased Na(+) conductance in a Mendelian form of severe aldosteronism and massive bilateral adrenal hyperplasia. These findings explain pathogenesis in a subset of patients with severe hypertension and implicate loss of K(+) channel selectivity in constitutive cell proliferation and hormone production.

DrugBank Data that Cites this Article

Polypeptides
NameUniProt ID
G protein-activated inward rectifier potassium channel 4P48544Details