Journal
BIOPHYSICAL JOURNAL
Volume 109, Issue 10, Pages 2003-2011Publisher
CELL PRESS
DOI: 10.1016/j.bpj.2015.09.032
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Funding
- National Institutes of Health, US Department of Health and Human Services [P01 GM055876]
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General anesthesia is a relatively safe medical procedure, which for nearly 170 years has allowed life saving surgical interventions in animals and people. However, the molecular mechanism of general anesthesia continues to be a matter of importance and debate. A favored hypothesis proposes that general anesthesia results from direct multisite interactions with multiple and diverse ion channels in the brain. Neurotransmitter-gated ion channels and two-pore K+ channels are key players in the mechanism of anesthesia; however, new studies have also implicated voltage-gated ion channels. Recent biophysical and structural studies of Na+ and K+ channels strongly suggest that halogenated inhalational general anesthetics interact with gates and pore regions of these ion channels to modulate function. Here, we review these studies and provide a perspective to stimulate further advances.
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