Open AccessInvestigating the Mitochondrial Permeability Transition Pore in Disease Phenotypes and Drug Screening
Author(s) -
Bhosale Gauri,
Duchen Michael R.
Publication year - 2019
Publication title -
current protocols in pharmacology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.893
H-Index - 26
eISSN - 1934-8290
pISSN - 1934-8282
DOI - 10.1002/cpph.59
Subject(s) - mitochondrial permeability transition pore , mitochondrion , mptp , bioenergetics , microbiology and biotechnology , mitochondrial membrane transport protein , drug discovery , phenotype , biology , mitochondrial disease , atp synthase , programmed cell death , inner mitochondrial membrane , chemistry , neuroscience , bioinformatics , apoptosis , biochemistry , mitochondrial dna , gene , dopaminergic , dopamine
Mitochondria act as ‘sinks’ for Ca 2+ signaling, with mitochondrial Ca 2+ uptake linking physiological stimuli to increased ATP production. However, mitochondrial Ca 2+ overload can induce a cellular catastrophe by opening of the mitochondrial permeability transition pore (mPTP). This pore is a large conductance pathway in the inner mitochondrial membrane that causes bioenergetic collapse and appears to represent a final common path to cell death in many diseases. The role of the mPTP as a determinant of disease outcome is best established in ischemia/reperfusion injury in the heart, brain, and kidney, and it is also implicated in neurodegenerative disorders and muscular dystrophies. As the probability of pore opening can be modulated by drugs, it represents a useful pharmacological target for translational research in drug discovery. Described in this unit is a protocol utilizing isolated mitochondria to quantify this phenomenon and to develop a high‐throughput platform for phenotypic screens for Ca 2+ dyshomeostasis. © 2019 The Authors. This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.