ArticleEvidence-based complementary and alternative medicine : eCAM2012
The Effects of the KCNQ Openers Retigabine and Flupirtine on Myotonia in Mammalian Skeletal Muscle Induced by a Chloride Channel Blocker.
Article in Evidence-based complementary and alternative medicine : eCAM, 2012. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 16 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
16 citing papers in PubMed, 18 citations in OpenAlex.
- Elimination of myotonia improves myopathy in a muscleblind-like knockout model of myotonic dystrophy.Nature communications · 2026Article
- Efficacy of a KMuscle & nerve · 2026Article
- Efficacy of Retigabine in Treating Weakness in a Mouse Model of Hypokalemic Periodic Paralysis.Muscle & nerve · 2026Article
- Elimination of myotonia improves myopathy in a muscleblind knockout model of myotonic dystrophy.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2025Article
- Pharmacological therapy of non-dystrophic myotonias.Acta myologica : myopathies and cardiomyopathies : official journal of the Mediterranean Society of Myology · 2025Review
- BK channels promote action potential repolarization in skeletal muscle but contribute little to myotonia.Pflugers Archiv : European journal of physiology · 2024Article
- Periodic paralysis.Handbook of clinical neurology · 2024Review
- Retigabine suppresses loss of force in mouse models of hypokalaemic periodic paralysis.Brain : a journal of neurology · 2023Article
- Chemical modulation of Kv7 potassium channels.RSC medicinal chemistry · 2021Review
- Kv7 Channels and Excitability Disorders.Handbook of experimental pharmacology · 2021Article
- Central Role of Subthreshold Currents in Myotonia.Annals of neurology · 2020Review
- Treatment of myotonia congenita with retigabine in mice.Experimental neurology · 2019Article
- Activation of KCNQ channels located on the skeletal muscle membrane by retigabine and its influence on the maximal muscle force in rat muscle strips.Naunyn-Schmiedeberg's archives of pharmacology · 2016Article
- Flupirtine, a re-discovered drug, revisited.Inflammation research : official journal of the European Histamine Research Society ... [et al.] · 2013Review
- In vivo evaluation of antimyotonic efficacy of β-adrenergic drugs in a rat model of myotonia.Neuropharmacology · 2013Article
- Evidence for inhibitory effects of flupirtine, a centrally acting analgesic, on delayed rectifier k(+) currents in motor neuron-like cells.Evidence-based complementary and alternative medicine : eCAM · 2012Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
5 authors at 3 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of KCNQ (potassium channel, voltage-gated, KQT-like subfamily) openers in preventing myotonia caused by anthracene-9-carboxylic acid (9-AC, a chloride channel blocker). An animal model of myotonia can be elicited in murine skeletal muscle by 9-AC treatment. KCNQ openers, such as retigabine and flupirtine, can inhibit the increased twitch amplitude (0.1 Hz stimulation) and reduce the tetanic fade (20 Hz stimulations) observed in the presence of 9-AC. Furthermore, the prolonged twitch duration of skeletal muscle was also inhibited by retigabine or flupirtine. Lamotrigine (an anticonvulsant drug) has a lesser effect on the muscle twitch amplitude, tetanic fade, and prolonged twitch duration as compared with KCNQ openers. In experiments using intracellular recordings, retigabine and flupirtine clearly reduced the firing frequencies of repetitive action potentials induced by 9-AC. These data suggested that KCNQ openers prevent the myotonia induced by 9-AC, at least partly through enhancing potassium conductance in skeletal muscle. Taken together, these results indicate that KCNQ openers are potential alternative therapeutic agents for the treatment of myotonia.
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.