KCNK18

Chr 10q25.3

potassium two pore domain channel subfamily K member 18

Aliases:: K2p18.1, TRESK-2, TRESK2, TRESK, TRIK
MANE:: ENST00000334549.1

OMIM: 613655 ↗NCBI: 338567 ↗Ensembl ↗

Annotations refreshed 9 hours ago.

Predicted protein structure

AlphaFold predicted structure

KCNK18 · Q7Z418

v62025-08-01

Predicted Aligned Error matrix for KCNK18 — diagonal shows residue index, colour shows pairwise prediction confidence (lower is better) — Predicted Aligned Error

Mean pLDDT

69.8/ 100

Low

384 residues

Confidence breakdown

Very high(≥ 90)24%
Confident(70–90)34%
Low(50–70)18%
Very low(< 50)25%

Open interactive 3D viewer

AlphaFold (Jumper et al., 2021) · CC BY 4.0

Clinical relevance (Genomics England PanelApp)

Moderate Evidence (Amber)

Brain channelopathy
Paroxysmal central nervous system disorders
MONOALLELIC, autosomal or pseudoautosomal, imprinted status unknown
Adult onset dystonia, chorea or related movement disorder
Adult onset neurodegenerative disorder
Unknown
Childhood onset dystonia, chorea or related movement disorder
Unknown
Hereditary ataxia with onset in adulthood
MONOALLELIC, autosomal or pseudoautosomal, NOT imprinted

Disease associations (Open Targets)

migraine disorder
0.43
sedation
0.38
acute respiratory distress syndrome
0.38
delirium
0.37
mitral valve disorder
0.32
aortic valve disorder
0.32
myocardial infarction
0.28
colorectal cancer
0.27
neurodevelopmental disorder
0.26
Inguinal hernia
0.26

Score is the Open Targets composite evidence score (0-1). Higher = stronger gene-disease association.

Protein function (UniProt)

Potassium channel subfamily K member 18

K(+) channel that conducts outward and inward rectifying currents at depolarized and hyperpolarized membrane potentials, respectively. The outward rectifying currents are voltage-dependent, coupled to K(+) electrochemical gradient across the membrane, whereas the inward currents can be induced in response to activation of Ca(2+)-mobilizing receptors (PubMed:12754259, PubMed:15562060, PubMed:20871611, PubMed:22355750, PubMed:26919430, PubMed:30573346). Homo- and heterodimerizes to form functional channels with distinct regulatory and gating properties. In trigeminal ganglia sensory neurons, the heterodimers of KCNK18/TRESK and KCNK2/TREK-1 or KCNK10/TREK-2 inhibit neuronal firing and neurogenic inflammation by stabilizing the resting membrane potential at K(+) equilibrium potential as well as by regulating the threshold of action potentials and the spike frequency (By similarity). In thymocytes, conducts K(+) currents upon T cell receptor (TCR) signaling leading to sustained Ca(2+) influx and NF-kappa-B activation, FOXP3 transcription and positive selection of regulatory T cell (Treg) progenitor subsets (PubMed:34702947). Appears to mediate the analgesics effects of hydroxy-alpha-sanshool, a metabolite naturally present in Schezuan pepper and other Xanthoxylum plants (By similarity)