48 Drug Discovery World Spring 2002

Although the pharmaceutical industry hasbeen slow to recognise the true potential ofion channels due to a combination of disbe-lief that ion channel dysfunction could cause disease and a lack of screening technology to keep up with other HTS assays, ion channels are currently very much in vogue. The discovery of ‘Channelopathies’ and exciting emerging ion channel screening tech-nologies herald a new era of intensive ion channel-based drug discovery. Here we review the current trends in the ion channel drug discovery business. Why should drug companies be interested in ion channels? We have known about ionic currents in nerve cells since 19521 and been able to electrically visualise single ion channels in real time using the patch-clamp technique since 19812. The first sodium io