This book provides a timely state-of-the-art overview of voltage-gated sodium channels, their structure-function, their pharmacology and related diseases. Among the topics discussed are the structural basis of Na+ channel function, methodological advances in the study of Na+ channels, their pathophysiology and drugs and toxins interactions with these channels and their associated channelopathies.

Dr. Mohamed Chahine is a Professor at the Department of Medicine of Université Laval and Head of the Laboratory of Cellular Electrophysiology at the CERVO Brain Research Center of the Institut universitaire en santé mentale de Québec. He has published over 160 articles in refereed journals as well as several book chapters in the field of voltage-gated Na+ channels and related diseases. Dr. Chahine has served or is currently serving on various committees of the Canadian Institutes of Health Research and the Heart and Stroke Foundation of Canada. He is associate editor of Frontiers Journal and editor of Scientific Reports. He is a member of the editorial boards of the Canadian Journal of Cardiology (Canada), the World Journal of Cardiology (China), the Journal of Cardiovascular Research (USA), Advances in Bioscience and Biotechnology (USA), and the Journal of Cardiology and Therapy (Hong Kong). He has also organized several national and International symposia and workshops on the role ofion channels in disease. Dr. Chahine has been invited to present his research at several national and international conferences and academic institutions.

Preface.- Part I.- Evolution of voltage-gated sodium channels.- 1. Evolutionary History of Voltage-Gated Sodium Channels.- 2. Mining Protein Evolution for Insights into Mechanisms of Voltage-Dependent Sodium Channel Auxiliary Subunits. - Part II. The structural basis of sodium channel function.- 3. Structural and Functional Analysis of Sodium Channels Viewed from an Evolutionary Perspective.- 4. The Cardiac Sodium Channel and Its Protein Partners.- 5. : Posttranslational Modification of Sodium Channels.- 6. Sodium Channel Trafficking.- 7. pH Modulation of Voltage-Gated Sodium Channels.- 8. Regulation of Cardiac Voltage-Gated Sodium Channel by Kinases: Roles of Protein Kinases A and C.- Part III. Drugs and toxins interactions with sodium channels.- 9. Toxins That Affect Voltage-Gated Sodium Channels.- 10. Mechanisms of Drug Binding to Voltage-Gated Sodium Channels.- 11. Effects of Benzothiazolamines on Voltage-Gated Sodium Channels.- 12. Structural Models of Ligand-Bound Sodium Channels.- 13. Selective Ligands and Drug Discovery Targeting the Voltage-Gated Sodium Channel Nav1.7.- Part IV. Pathophysiology of sodium channels.- 14. Sodium Channelopathies of Skeletal Muscle.- 15. Cardiac Arrhythmias Related to Sodium Channel Dysfunction.- 16. Translational Model Systems for ComplexSodium Channel Pathophysiology in Pain.- 17. Gating Pore Currents in Sodium Channels.- 18. Calculating the Consequences of Left-Shifted Nav Channel Activity in Sick Excitable Cells.- 19. Voltage-Gated Sodium Channel b Subunits and Their Related Diseases.