Acid-sensing ion channel

Patent Granted Acid-Sensing Ion Channels (ASICs) are neuronal voltage-insensitive cationic channels activated by extracellular protons. ASIC proteins are a subfamily of the ENaC/Deg superfamily of ion channels. To date six proteins of the ASIC family have been identified that arise from four genes, ASIC1, ASIC2, ASIC3, and ASIC4. ASIC1a, 1b and 2a, 2b are splice variants. ASICs are trimeric and can be made up of different combinations of subunits.