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  • Title: [Do general anesthetics act on specific receptors?].
    Author: Urban BW, Duch DS, Frenkel C, Rehberg B, Wartenberg HC.
    Journal: Anasthesiol Intensivmed Notfallmed Schmerzther; 1995 Oct; 30(6):375-82. PubMed ID: 8541441.
    Abstract:
    First of all, the meanings of the terms anaesthesia, anaesthetic and receptor are defined. Examples of anaesthetic actions in model systems are then described and compared with clinical actions of anaesthetics. When anaesthetics achieve a certain membrane concentration, they begin to influence membrane protein function in a nonspecific manner. If the anaesthetic drug possesses polar functional groups in addition to lipophilic ones, it may selectively affect membrane proteins and interact with them specifically. The absolute lipophilicity of a drug does not necessarily determine whether or not a drug is a suitable anaesthetic. Rather, it is important that the drug does not show undesirable side effects when it achieves a critical membrane concentration at which lipophilic interactions occur. There are examples of specific interactions of general anaesthetics with receptors as well as examples of nonspecific effects on membranes. Whether these interactions are important for anaesthesia remains to be seen.
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