Access

News and Views

Nature 389, 334-335 (25 September 1997) | doi:10.1038/38614

Open Innovation Challenges

naturejobs

More science jobs
Post a job for free

Inhibitory synapses:  Anaesthetics set their sites on ion channels

N. P. Franks1 & W. R. Lieb1

The way in which volatile and gaseous general anaesthetics work has remained a puzzle ever since they were introduced into clinical practice during the 1840s. The prevailing view has been that anaesthetics (and, indeed, alcohol) do not have specific molecular targets in the conventional pharmacological sense, but that they nonspecifically disrupt nerve-membrane lipids1, 2.

  1. N. P. Franks and W. R. Lieb are in the Biophysics Section, The Blackett Laboratory, Imperial College of Science, Technology and Medicine, London SW7 2BZ, UK.