New research from Weill Cornell Medicine scientists challenges a century-old concept of how anesthetics work, and may help guide the development of new agents associated with fewer side effects.
In the study, published March 6 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, researchers demonstrated that general anesthetics at clinically relevant concentrations do not affect the properties of the part of cellular membranes composed of fat, called the lipid bilayer, contrary to previous ideas. Their discovery strongly supports a more modern hypothesis that anesthesia interacts directly with membrane proteins — rather than indirectly through the membrane itself — to inhibit the electrical communications between neurons, triggering unconsciousness.
The study, with lead author Dr. Karl Herold, is a result of a successful collaboration between the laboratories of Dr. Hugh Hemmings, chair of the Department of Anesthesiology at Weill Cornell Medicine, and Dr. Olaf Andersen, professor of physiology & biophysics and director of the Tri-Institutional MD-PhD Program.
Learn more in the Weill Cornell Medicine Newsroom.
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