The pulmonary epithelial sodium ion channel (ENaC) is gaining importance for its sodium gating and mechanosensitive roles. The mechano functional studies on ENaC suggest direct molecular interactions between the ENaC protein with cytoskeleton microtubules and other extracellular matrix components. Also, in few mechanotransduction studies, ENaC was shown to respond both to membrane stretch as well as cell volume changes. However, the conformational characteristic of ENaC during sodium and mechano gating are yet to be fully elucidated. Thus obtaining ENaC protein conformational spectrum based on Fourier Transform Infrared Radiation (FTIR) spectroscopy in solution will be useful in predicting the nature of conformational changes occurring during any cell volume changes in an epithelial cell. The conformational spectrum looks promising in studying the disease biology of cystic fibrosis (CF) and CF like conditions that arise due to abnormal ion conductance membrane proteins and subsequent frequent fluid retentions. This review article presents the basics of epithelial ENaC protein as a gated mechanosensor and FTIR for developing fluid dynamics of ENaC protein. This can be applied to develop an ENaC based quantum mechanosensor for the prognosis as well as diagnosis of cystic fibrosis (CF) and allied lung diseases.

肺上皮钠离子通道 (ENaC) 因其钠门控和机械敏感作用而变得越来越重要。ENaC 的机械功能研究表明 ENaC 蛋白与细胞骨架微管和其他细胞外基质成分之间存在直接的分子相互作用。此外，在少数机械转导研究中，ENaC 被证明对膜拉伸和细胞体积变化都有反应。然而，ENaC 在钠和机械门控过程中的构象特征尚未完全阐明。因此，基于溶液中的傅里叶变换红外辐射 (FTIR) 光谱获得 ENaC 蛋白构象光谱将有助于预测在上皮细胞中任何细胞体积变化期间发生的构象变化的性质。构象谱在研究囊性纤维化 (CF) 的疾病生物学和由于离子电导膜蛋白异常和随后频繁的液体潴留而出现的 CF 样病症方面看起来很有希望。这篇综述文章介绍了上皮 ENaC 蛋白作为门控机械传感器的基础知识，以及用于开发 ENaC 蛋白流体动力学的 FTIR。这可用于开发基于 ENaC 的量子力学传感器，用于囊性纤维化 (CF) 和相关肺病的预后和诊断。