Sodium Channel Voltage Gated Type VII Alpha (SCN7a)

Scn7a is the name of the gene that encodes to a membrane protein, in particular a Sodium Channel Na_x. It belongs to a family of Sodium Channel known as Voltage-Gated, but is not activated by changes in the membrane's voltage, as happen usually in the members of this family (Na_v1.1 to Na_v1.9); it activates by changes in the extracellular concentration of sodium [~150 mM].

Voltage-dependent sodium channels are responsible for the initial membrane depolarization that occurs during generation of action potentials in most electrically excitable cells. These ion channel proteins exist as heteromultimeric complexes of a large (approximately 260 kD) alpha subunit and 1 or 2 smaller (approximately 33-38 kD) beta subunits.