Membrane-mediated anesthesia

Membrane-mediated anesthesia or anaesthesia (UK) is a mechanism of action that involves an anesthetic agent exerting its pharmaceutical effects primarily through interaction with the lipid bilayer membrane.

The relationship between volatile (inhalable) general anesthetics and the cellular lipid membrane has been well established since around 1900, based on the Meyer-Overton Correlation. Since 1900 there have been extensive research efforts to characterize these membrane-mediated effects of anesthesia, leading to many theories, but only recently did research experimentaly demonstrated a promising mechanism of membrane-mediated anesthetic action for both general and Local anesthetics. These studies suggest that the anesthetic binding site in the membrane is within ordered lipids. This binding disrupts the function of the ordered lipids, forming lipid rafts that dislodge a membrane-bound phospholipase involved in a metabolic pathway that actives anesthetic-sensitive potassium channels. Other recent studies show similar lipid-raft-specific anesthetic effects on sodium channels.

See Theories of general anaesthetic action for a broader discussion of purely theoretical mechanisms.

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