Quantitative signal analysis of a ligand-gated ion channel on a lipid bilayer using continuous-time wavelet transformation

Abstract

This paper proposes an analytical method to evaluate the signal of ligand-gated ion channels (ICs) recomposed on the artificial cell membrane. Since ICs in cell membrane have an incredible sensitivity and specificity to chemical reagents, ICs work as a chemical sensor by measuring their conductance. In spite of their attractive functionality, the signal of ICs has not been evaluated in quantitative viewpoints. Therefore, we illustrate the method of signal characterization using continuous-time wavelet transformation (CWT). As a result, we figured out five different signals, the four of which should be eliminated as a background noise. In addition, the data exhibited the inherent characteristics of the analyzed IC, olfactory-receptor-coreceptor (Orco). This technique could bring the strategy to quantitatively “measure” the signal of the activated Orco or other ligand-gated ICs using the upcoming signal detection algorithm.