Solution

ID: past-exam-of-the-biological-physics-course-of-the-university-of-oxford/2019/2/c/ii/solution

A sodium-channel gain-of-function mechanism in Long QT syndrome can reduce the inactivation rate or increase recovery/reopening from inactivated states, leaving a small persistent open population. The resulting late inward sodium current opposes repolarizing outward currents while , prolonging the cardiac action potential. Slower entry into would also extend the typical conducting episode relative to its normal duration. The altered effect is prolonged sodium entry, not reversal of sodium's charge or a pump-driven uphill flux through the channel.
The precise rate change depends on the mutation: the clinical label alone does not uniquely specify one transition constant. Long QT syndromes also include other channel mechanisms; the question here concerns its stated sodium-channel variant.[ref]

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