title: Voltage-gated ion channels.
abstract: How and where simple volatile organic molecules act in the central nervous system to cause loss of consciousness and insensitivity to pain has eluded investigation; yet remarkable progress has been made recently towards identifying possible molecular targets through which the mechanism of anesthesia is tranduced. It is likely that anesthetics act by binding directly to protein targets; several possible candidates have been identified and the debate now focuses on whether general anesthesia is due to large effects at a relatively small number of critical molecular sites or due to the combined effects of small perturbations at a very large number of sites; voltage-gated ion channels are contenders for either possibility and are the subject of this review.
authors.affiliation: Klinik für Anästhesiologie, Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg, Krankenhausstr. 12, 91054, Erlangen, Germany. carla.nau@kfa.imed.uni-erlangen.de
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Nau
mesh_terms: D018681:Anesthetics, General / Q000494:pharmacology*; D000818:Animals; D002490:Central Nervous System / Q000187:drug effects* / Q000378:metabolism; D054815:Cyclic Nucleotide-Gated Cation Channels / Q000187:drug effects; D006801:Humans; D064428:Hyperpolarization-Activated Cyclic Nucleotide-Gated Channels; D015640:Ion Channel Gating / Q000187:drug effects*; D007473:Ion Channels / Q000737:chemistry / Q000187:drug effects* / Q000378:metabolism; D008564:Membrane Potentials / Q000187:drug effects; D008958:Models, Molecular; D015221:Potassium Channels / Q000187:drug effects; D024683:Potassium Channels, Tandem Pore Domain / Q000187:drug effects; D011487:Protein Conformation; D015222:Sodium Channels / Q000187:drug effects
chemical_list: D018681:Anesthetics, General; D054815:Cyclic Nucleotide-Gated Cation Channels; D064428:Hyperpolarization-Activated Cyclic Nucleotide-Gated Channels; D007473:Ion Channels; D015221:Potassium Channels; D024683:Potassium Channels, Tandem Pore Domain; D015222:Sodium Channels