Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • News & Views
  • Published:

Inhibitory synapses

Anaesthetics set their sites on ion channels

Nature volume 389, pages 334–335 (1997)Cite this article

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. Evidence in support of this includes the molecular simplicity of the agents, and the correlation of potency with fat solubility.

Although this idea is, in some ways, an attractive unifying concept, it has fallen out of favour: anaesthetic effects on lipid bilayers are very small, and the potencies3 and stereoselectivities4 of general anaesthetics can be much more plausibly interpreted in terms of their binding directly to protein targets. Now, on page 385 of this issue, Mihic et al.5 report another step towards identifying specific molecular sites on ion channels, which may be involved in the actions of general anaesthetics and ethanol.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Access options

Buy this article

  • Purchase on Springer Link
  • Instant access to full article PDF
Buy now

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Figure 1: Mihic et al.5 have found that single amino-acid substitutions at two positions remove the potentiating effects of volatile anaesthetics and ethanol on GABAA (γ-aminobutyric acid) and glycine receptors.

References

  1. Miller, K. W. & Pang, K.-Y. Y. Nature 263, 253–255 (1976).

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  2. Lyon, R. C., McComb, J. A., Schreurs, J. & Goldstein, D. B. J. Pharmacol. Exp. Ther. 218, 669–675 (1981).

    Google Scholar 

  3. Franks, N. P. & Lieb, W. R. Nature 310, 599–601 (1984).

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  4. Franks, N. P. & Lieb, W. R. Science 254, 427–430 (1991).

    Google Scholar 

  5. Mihic, S. J. et al. Nature 389, 385–389 (1997).

    Google Scholar 

  6. Unwin, N. Neuron 10, (Suppl.) 31-41 (1993).

  7. Harris, R. A., Mihic, S. J., Dildy-Mayfield, J. E. & Machu, T. K. FASEB J. 9, 1454–1462 (1995).

    Google Scholar 

  8. Franks, N. P. & Lieb, W. R. Nature 367, 607–614 (1994).

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  9. Forman, S. A., Miller, K. W. & Yellen, G. Mol. Pharmacol. 48, 574–581 (1995).

    Google Scholar 

  10. Zhang, L., Oz, M., Stewart, R. R., Peoples, R. W. & Weight, F. F. Br. J. Pharmacol. 120, 353–355 (1997).

    Google Scholar 

  11. Belelli, D., Lambert, J. J., Peters, J. A., Wafford, K. & Whiting, P. J. Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA (in the press).

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. the Biophysics Section, The Blackett Laboratory, Imperial College of Science, Technology and Medicine, SW7 2BZ, London, UK

    N. P. Franks & W. R. Lieb

Authors
  1. N. P. Franks
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. W. R. Lieb
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Franks, N., Lieb, W. Anaesthetics set their sites on ion channels. Nature 389, 334–335 (1997). https://doi.org/10.1038/38614

Download citation

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/38614

This article is cited by

Search

Advanced search

Quick links

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing