What is the M-current, which channels carry it and why is it called M? · Lobeworks/17

A slow potassium current that opens with depolarisation and does not inactivate, carried by KCNQ channels (Kv7, mainly KCNQ2 and KCNQ3).

What is the M-current, which channels carry it and why is it called M?

A slow potassium current that opens with depolarisation and does not inactivate, carried by KCNQ channels (Kv7, mainly KCNQ2 and KCNQ3). It was named M in 1980 by Brown and Adams because muscarinic acetylcholine receptors shut it. It builds up during a train and adds to adaptation, so shutting it with acetylcholine makes a neuron fire more and adapt less.