Receptor mechanism of general anesthesia / 中国药理学通报

ABSTRACT

Molecular cloning of cDNAs coding for ligand-gated ion channel subunits makes it possible to study the pharmacology of recombinant receptors with defined subunit compositions. Many laboratories have used these techniques recently to study actions of agents that produce general anesthesia. Most of the volatile and intravenous anesthetics potentiate the function of GABAA receptor to different extent. Glycine, AMPA, kainate,NMDA, and 5-HT3 recepors are also the targets for many anesthetics. Subunit specific actions of some of the agents suggest that construction and testing of certain chimeric receptor subunits may be useful for defining the amino acid sequences responsible for anesthetic actions.