ArticleProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America2017
Clinical concentrations of chemically diverse general anesthetics minimally affect lipid bilayer properties.
Article in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 2017. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 33 papers.
What it found
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Who cites it
33 citing papers in PubMed, 54 citations in OpenAlex.
- Windows to Consciousness: The Role of Fronto-Parietal Connectivity in Anesthesia-Induced Unconsciousness.Current neuropharmacology · 2026Review
- Article
- A Comparative Study of Common Anesthetics Propofol, Sevoflurane, Isoflurane and Ketamine on Lipid Membrane Fluidity.International journal of molecular sciences · 2025Article
- Article
- Studying the Effects of Dissolved Noble Gases and High Hydrostatic Pressure on the Spherical DOPC Bilayer Using Molecular Dynamic Simulations.Membranes · 2024Article
- Noise-induced ribbon synapse loss in the mouse basal cochlear region does not reduce inner hair cell exocytosis.Frontiers in cellular neuroscience · 2024Article
- Probing the Hydrophobic Region of a Lipid Bilayer at Specific Depths Using Vibrational Spectroscopy.Journal of the American Chemical Society · 2023Article
- Screening for bilayer-active and likely cytotoxic molecules reveals bilayer-mediated regulation of cell function.The Journal of general physiology · 2023Article
- High-pressure crystallography shows noble gas intervention into protein-lipid interaction and suggests a model for anaesthetic action.Communications biology · 2022Article
- Alteration of lipid bilayer mechanics by volatile anesthetics: Insights from μs-long molecular dynamics simulations.iScience · 2022Article
- Thalamic T-Type Calcium Channels as Targets for Hypnotics and General Anesthetics.International journal of molecular sciences · 2022Review
- Perioperative Anesthesia and Acute Smell Alterations in Spine Surgery: A "Sniffing Impairment" Influencing Refeeding?Frontiers in surgery · 2022Article
- Effects of General Anesthetics on Synaptic Transmission and Plasticity.Current neuropharmacology · 2022Review
- Effects of ethanol and n-butanol on the fluidity of supported lipid bilayers.Chemistry and physics of lipids · 2021Article
- Ketamine Produces a Long-Lasting Enhancement of CA1 Neuron Excitability.International journal of molecular sciences · 2021Article
- Interfacial binding sites for cholesterol on GABABiophysical journal · 2021Article
- Relationship between Artificial Intelligence-Based General Anesthetics and Postoperative Cognitive Dysfunction.Journal of healthcare engineering · 2021Article
- Assessing the Perturbing Effects of Drugs on Lipid Bilayers Using Gramicidin Channel-BasedJournal of medicinal chemistry · 2020Article
- Structure and Dynamics of GPCRs in Lipid Membranes: Physical Principles and Experimental Approaches.Molecules (Basel, Switzerland) · 2020Review
- Studies on the mechanism of general anesthesia.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2020Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
5 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
General anesthetics have revolutionized medicine by facilitating invasive procedures, and have thus become essential drugs. However, detailed understanding of their molecular mechanisms remains elusive. A mechanism proposed over a century ago involving unspecified interactions with the lipid bilayer known as the unitary lipid-based hypothesis of anesthetic action, has been challenged by evidence for direct anesthetic interactions with a range of proteins, including transmembrane ion channels. Anesthetic concentrations in the membrane are high (10-100 mM), however, and there is no experimental evidence ruling out a role for the lipid bilayer in their ion channel effects. A recent hypothesis proposes that anesthetic-induced changes in ion channel function result from changes in bilayer lateral pressure that arise from partitioning of anesthetics into the bilayer. We examined the effects of a broad range of chemically diverse general anesthetics and related nonanesthetics on lipid bilayer properties using an established fluorescence assay that senses drug-induced changes in lipid bilayer properties. None of the compounds tested altered bilayer properties sufficiently to produce meaningful changes in ion channel function at clinically relevant concentrations. Even supra-anesthetic concentrations caused minimal bilayer effects, although much higher (toxic) concentrations of certain anesthetic agents did alter lipid bilayer properties. We conclude that general anesthetics have minimal effects on bilayer properties at clinically relevant concentrations, indicating that anesthetic effects on ion channel function are not bilayer-mediated but rather involve direct protein interactions.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.