Sleep calcium channels

T-type calcium channels play critical roles in shaping the electrical and plastic properties of neurons and are also implicated in hormone secretion, differentiation and muscle development (Huguenard, 1996 Perez-Reyes, 2003). In thalamic reticular and relay neurons, T-type channels contribute to rhythmic rebound burst firing and spindle waves associated with slow-wave sleep. T-type channels also play crucial roles in dendritic integration and calcium-mediated spiking in hippocampal pyramidal cells, and in synaptic release at olfactory dendrodendritic... 

A large number of toxic peptides are found in cone snails (Conidae). They include four classes of small (13-29 amino acid) basic peptides, known as conotoxins, that have paralytic effects cu-conotoxins block presynaptic calcium channels, a-conotoxins bind to nicotinic ACh receptors in muscle, p-contoxins bind to muscle sodium channels, K-conotoxins may affect potassium channels. Other cone snail toxins include sleeper that induces sleep in mice, conopressin that produces scratching behaviour in mice and increases blood pressure in mammals and a larger (ca. 100 amino acid) toxin that produces convulsions in mice. 

Lamotrigine is an anticonvulsant drug that attenuates some forms of cortical glutamate release via inhibition of sodium, calcium, and potassium channels. An open-label case series (Uvebrant and Bauziene, 1994) and a case report (Davanzo and King, 1996) described improvement in autistic symptoms and self-injurious behavior, irritability, disturbed sleep, and social impairment in autistic children and an 18-year-old female with profound mental retardation, respectively, who were treated for epilepsy. 

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