Four-mode gating model of fast inactivation of sodium channel Nav1.2a.

Basic principles of the gating mechanisms of neuronal sodium channels, especially the fast inactivation process, were revealed by a quantitative analysis of the effects of the chemically irreversible modifying agent chloramine T. The compound is known to enhance the open probability of sodium channels by interfering with the inactivation process. The key for the deduction of structure-function relationships was obtained from the analysis of single-channel patch-clamp data, especially the finding that chloramine T-induced modification of inactivation occurred in four steps.