Lannawill Caruth

1 Introduction Periodontitis affects 47% of US adults and, in its severe form, affects 1.1 billion people worldwide (Chen et al. 2021; Jain et al. 2023). It can lead to bone and tooth loss, tooth migration and mobility. The burden of untreated periodontitis also represents a considerable economic challenge, particularly in the context of an aging global population (Jain et al. 2023).

Abstract Human Kv1.3, encoded by KCNA3, is expressed in neuronal and immune cells. Its impaired expression or function produces chronic inflammatory disease and autoimmune disorders, the severity of which correlates with Kv1.3 protein expression. The intersubunit recognition domain, T1, at the cytosolic N-terminus of Kv1.3, acquires secondary, tertiary, and quaternary structures during early biogenesis while the nascent protein is attached to the ribosome and/or the ER membrane.