How Do Anesthetics Work?
In Surprise, Research Suggests Lipid Bilayer Uninvolved, Challenging Prevalent Theory
General anesthesia at clinically relevant concentrations induces unconsciousness by changing the function of proteins on the cell membrane, not the lipid bilayer, as previously believed, researchers have concluded. The findings challenge a century-old concept of how anesthetics work, and may ultimately help guide the development of novel, highly targeted anesthetic agents.
It amazes me that despite how much we have progressed in scientific knowledge, there is still so much to learn. We have safely been using anesthetic gases for decades, but we still don't know how they actually work on the brain to induce anesthesia.
We know how most of the drugs that we use in medicine work, but these inhalational gases remain a mystery.