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.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2008 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Nau, C. (2008). Voltage-Gated Ion Channels. In: Schüttler, J., Schwilden, H. (eds) Modern Anesthetics. Handbook of Experimental Pharmacology, vol 182. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-74806-9_4
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-74806-9_4
Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg
Print ISBN: 978-3-540-72813-9
Online ISBN: 978-3-540-74806-9
eBook Packages: Biomedical and Life SciencesBiomedical and Life Sciences (R0)