Mechanism of action of general anaesthetics--new information from molecular pharmacology

Abstract

Major progress in our understanding of the mechanisms of anaesthesia has been made during the past year. Several key advances in defining very specific sites of action on ligand-gated ion channels have been described. Furthermore, new techniques have become available for addressing the identification of binding sites and transduction mechanisms on these receptors. The discovery that anaesthetics affect a recently identified family of potassium channels could also lead to major new findings in the next few years.