Application of machine-learning methods to recognize mitoBK Channels from different cell types based on the experimental patch-clamp results

(1) Background: In this work, we focus on the activity of large-conductance voltage- and Ca²⁺-activated potassium channels (BK) from the inner mitochondrial membrane (mitoBK). The characteristic electrophysiological features of the mitoBK channels are relatively high single-channel conductance (ca. 300 pS) and types of activating and deactivating stimuli. Nevertheless, depending on the isoformal composition of mitoBK channels in a given membrane patch and the type of auxiliary regulatory subunits (which can be co-assembled to the mitoBK channel protein) the characteristics of conformational dynamics of the channel protein can be altered. Consequently, the individual features of experimental series describing single-channel activity obtained by patch-clamp method can also vary. (2) Methods: Artificial intelligence approaches (deep learning) were used to classify the patch-clamp outputs of mitoBK activity from different cell types. (3) Results: Application of the K-nearest neighbors algorithm (KNN) and the autoencoder neural network allowed to perform the classification of the electrophysiological signals with a very good accuracy, which indicates that the conformational dynamics of the analyzed mitoBK channels from different cell types significantly differs. (4) Conclusion: We displayed the utility of machine-learning methodology in the research of ion channel gating, even in cases when the behavior of very similar microbiosystems is analyzed. A short excerpt from the patch-clamp recording can serve as a “fingerprint” used to recognize the mitoBK gating dynamics in the patches of membrane from different cell types.