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Sensory transduction

Out in the cold

Nature Reviews Neuroscience volume 3, pages 169–170 (2002)Cite this article

The first study, by McKemy et al., reports the identification of a receptor for cold. The authors cloned a receptor from trigeminal sensory neurons that is activated both by cool or cold stimuli and by menthol, which is often used in studies of cold because it gives a similar sensation. The 'cold- and menthol-sensitive receptor', or CMR1, is a member of the transient receptor potential (TRP) family of excitatory ion channels. Other members of this family include the heat-sensitive vanilloid receptors VR1 and VRL1. When CMR1 is activated by menthol or cold, it opens and allows the influx of calcium ions, leading to depolarization and the generation of action potentials.

So far, so good. But the second study, by Viana et al., comes to a very different conclusion. The authors cultured trigeminal ganglion neurons and studied their electrophysiological properties. In the subset of neurons that responded to cold or menthol, they found no evidence for an excitatory cold receptor. Rather, Viana et al. conclude that cooling these neurons causes depolarization and firing by closing a background potassium channel. The same channel also closes in cold-insensitive neurons, but firing is prevented by a transient potassium current that acts as an excitability brake.

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References

ORIGINAL RESEARCH PAPER

  1. McKemy, D. D. et al. Identification of a cold receptor reveals a general role for TRP channels in thermosensation. Nature 11 February 2002 (10.1038/nature719)

  2. Viana, F. et al. Specificity of cold thermotransduction is determined by differential ionic channel expression. Nature Neurosci. 11 February 2002 (10.1038/nn809)

FURTHER READING

  1. Julius, D. & Basbaum, A. I. Molecular mechanisms of nociception. Nature 413, 203–210 (2001)

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Authors
  1. Rachel Jones
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Jones, R. Out in the cold. Nat Rev Neurosci 3, 169–170 (2002). https://doi.org/10.1038/nrn775

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nrn775

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