Molecular Forces in Anesthesia

Publisher Summary Several observations and ideas on possible anesthesia mechanism have appeared, as theories, and have created considerable controversies, indicating that these proposed ideas are more in the nature of interesting, thought-provoking hypotheses, than they are actual scientific theories. All these hypotheses are based on the correlations between anesthetic potency and some physical properties of the relevant agents, such as solubility, polarizability, refractivity. These properties are all intimately interrelated and are consequences of the atomic structure. This chapter discusses the basic molecular interactions in which anesthetic agents can be involved in their biological surroundings. This study is generally restricted to the so-called “inert gaseous anesthetic agents” that exert their biological effects without undergoing any change in their own chemical structures. Attention has been focused on the behavior and distribution of these discrete molecules in their biological surrounding. The various binding forces, through which the so-called “inert gaseous anesthetic agents” associate with macromolecules, are discussed to demonstrate what conditions are prerequisite for binding. If the molecular natures of particular binding sites are determined, it will be feasible to elucidate how such an interaction affects the function of the systems. Recent advances in protein crystallography have made now it possible to study drug-protein interaction on a truly molecular level.