title: 110 years of the Meyer-Overton rule: predicting membrane permeability of gases and other small compounds.
abstract: The transport of gaseous compounds across biological membranes is essential in all forms of life. Although it was generally accepted that gases freely penetrate the lipid matrix of biological membranes, a number of studies challenged this doctrine as they found biological membranes to have extremely low gas-permeability values. These observations led to the identification of several membrane-embedded "gas" channels, which facilitate the transport of biological active gases, such as carbon dioxide, nitric oxide, and ammonia. However, some of these findings are in contrast to the well-established solubility-diffusion model (also known as the Meyer-Overton rule), which predicts membrane permeabilities from the molecule's oil-water partition coefficient. Herein, we discuss recently reported violations of the Meyer-Overton rule for small molecules, including carboxylic acids and gases, and show that Meyer and Overton continue to rule.
authors.affiliation: Institut für Biophysik, Johannes Kepler Universität, Altenberger Str. 69, 4040 Linz, Austria.
authors.forename: Andreas
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Missner
authors.forename: Peter
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Pohl
mesh_terms: D001692:Biological Transport; D002462:Cell Membrane / Q000737:chemistry; D002463:Cell Membrane Permeability; D002621:Chemistry / Q000266:history; D005740:Gases / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000378:metabolism; D049673:History, 20th Century; D049674:History, 21st Century; D008051:Lipid Bilayers / Q000378:metabolism; D009930:Organic Chemicals / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000378:metabolism; D012995:Solubility; D013816:Thermodynamics
chemical_list: D005740:Gases; D008051:Lipid Bilayers; D009930:Organic Chemicals