General anesthesia is a relatively safe medical procedure, which for nearly 170 years has allowed life saving surgical interventions in animals and people. However, the molecular mechanism of general anesthesia continues to be a matter of importance and debate. A favored hypothesis proposes that general anesthesia results from direct multisite interactions with multiple and diverse ion channels in the brain. Neurotransmitter-gated ion channels and two-pore K+ channels are key players in the mechanism of anesthesia; however, new studies have also implicated voltage-gated ion channels. Recent biophysical and structural studies of Na+ and K+ channels strongly suggest that halogenated inhalational general anesthetics interact with gates and pore regions of these ion channels to modulate function. Here, we review these studies and provide a perspective to stimulate further advances.
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机译：全身麻醉是一种相对安全的医疗程序，近170年来，这种手术可以挽救动物和人的生命。然而，全身麻醉的分子机制仍然是一个重要的问题和争论。一种有利的假设提出，全身麻醉是由与大脑中多个不同离子通道的直接多位相互作用引起的。神经递质门控离子通道和两孔K + 通道是麻醉机制的关键因素。但是，新的研究也涉及电压门控离子通道。 Na + 和K + 通道的最新生物物理和结构研究强烈表明，卤代吸入全身麻醉剂与这些离子通道的门和孔区域相互作用，以调节功能。在这里，我们回顾了这些研究，并提供了激发进一步发展的前景。
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