Calcium influx into the cell from the extracellular medium is crucial for important processes
including muscle contraction, secretion and gene expression. This calcium influx is mainly
mediated through calcium influx channels, which on the basis of their activation mechanism
can be subdivided in voltage-gated calcium channels, which have already been thoroughly
characterized and non-voltage-gated calcium permeable channels. This latter group
includes ion channels activated by binding of extra and intracellular messengers …