effects) and β-phorbel esters (which mimic the effects of DAG) have been shown to have a stimulatory action on synaptic transmission, it has been concluded that it is the DAG component of the cascade that regulates neurotransmitter release. Indeed, in C.elegans DAG regulates UNC-13, a plasma-membrane associated protein critical for vesicle-mediated neurotransmitter release and mutational studies have shown that two UNC-13 reduction of function mutants show resistance to emodepside, observations supporting this hypothesized mechanism of action. The mechanism by which activation of UNC-13 results in neurotransmitter release (the ultimate result of latrophilin activation) is through interaction with the synaptosomal membrane protein syntaxin, with UNC-13 binding to the N-terminus of syntaxin and promoting the switch from the closed form of syntaxin (which is incompatible with SNARE complex synaptobrevin, SNAP-25 and syntaxin formation) to its open formation so that SNARE complex formation can be achieved, thereby allowing vesicle fusion and release to take place. At a molecular level, the net result of the activation of this pathway, is the spontaneous stimulation of inhibitory PF1-like neuropeptide release (this is suspected due to Emodepside's inhibition of acetylcholine-elicited muscle contraction requiring both calcium ions and extracellular potassium ions, similar to the action of PF1/PF2). Although in experiments on synaptosomes, α-LTX triggered non-calcium dependent exocytosis of vesicles containing acetylcholine, glutamate and GABA, both glutamate and GABA have been ruled out as the sole neurotransmitters responsible for emodepside's action) which then acts on the post-synaptic membrane (i.e. the pharyngeal/muscle membrane) of the nematode, having an inhibitory effect thereby either inducing paralysis or inhibiting pharyngeal pumping, both of which ultimately result in the death of the organism. Mutational studies involving LAT-1 knockout and LAT-2 gene deletion mutants have revealed that the role of latrophilin receptors in the different tissues that they are expressed differs between subtypes, with LAT-1 being expressed in the pharynx of C.elegans (thereby modulating pharyngeal pumping) and LAT-2 having a role in locomotion. In addition to exerting an effect on the nematode via binding to Latrophilin receptors, there is also recent evidence that indicates that emodepside also interacts with the BK potassium channel coded by the gene Slo-1. This protein (see figure for structure) is a member of the 6 transmembrane helix structural class of potassium ion channels with each subunit consisting of 6 transmembrane helices and 1 P domain (this P domain is conserved in all potassium ion channels and forms the selectivity filter