Comment on “The quercetin metabolite 4-methylcatechol causes vasodilation via voltage-gated potassium (Kv) channels” by Patrícia Dias, Rudy Salam, Jana Pourová, Marie Vopršalová, Lukáš Konečný, Eduard Jirkovský, Jurjen Duintjer Tebbens and Přemysl Mladěnka, Food & Function, 2024, 15, 11047

Voltage-gated potassium (Kv) channels in the Kv1 and Kv7 gene families are expressed in vascular smooth muscle, where they can modulate cellular excitability and potentially act as targets for antihypertensive drugs and botanicals. In an article recently published in Food & Function, Dias and colleagues concluded that “in silico reverse docking confirmed that 4-MC [4-methylcatechol] binds to Kv7.4” and that “4-MC exerts vasorelaxation by opening Kv channels with the involvement of Kv7.4”. Here, we tested their conclusions using heterologous expression experiments, an important step in target validation, and found that Kv7.4 is in fact insensitive to 4-MC.