Pharmacology of acid-sensing ion channels - Physiological and therapeutical perspectives

Development of the pharmacology of Acid-Sensing Ion Channels (ASICs) has become a key challenge to study their structure, their molecular and cellular functions and their physiopathological roles. This review provides a summary of the different compounds that directly interact with these channels, either with inhibitory or stimulatory effect, and with high selectivity or poor specificity. They include drugs and endogenous regulators, natural compounds of vegetal origin, and peptides isolated from animal venoms. The in vivo use of some of these pharmacological modulators in animal models and a few small clinical studies in humans have provided substantial data on the physiological and physiopathological roles of ASIC channels. Modulation of these channels will certainly provide new therapeutic opportunities in neurological and psychiatric diseases including pain, stroke, epilepsy, anxiety, depression or traumatic injury, as well as in some non-neurological pathologies. This article is part of the Special Issue entitled 'Acid-Sensing Ion Channels in the Nervous System'.