Significant progress has been made in the 21st century towards a comprehensive
understanding of the mechanisms of action of general anesthetics, coincident with progress …

Nicotinic acetylcholine, serotonin type 3, γ-amminobutyric acid type A, and glycine receptors
are major players of human neuronal communication. They belong to the family of …

GABA A receptors are ligand-gated ion channels composed of five subunits that can be
opened by GABA and be modulated by multiple pharmacologically and clinically important …

Allosteric interactions play vital roles in metabolic processes and signal transduction and,
more recently, have become the focus of numerous pharmacological studies because of the …

Neurosteroids are endogenous modulators of neuronal excitability and nervous system
development and are being developed as anesthetic agents and treatments for psychiatric …

Photoaffinity labeling (PAL) is one of the few biochemical techniques that can give direct
evidence of biomolecular interactions in cells. Several photoactivatable functional groups …

Propofol acts as a positive allosteric modulator of γ-aminobutyric acid type A receptors
(GABA A Rs), an interaction necessary for its anesthetic potency in vivo as a general …

Small molecules can serve as leads for new therapeutics as well as powerful tools to
investigate biological processes. Understanding the interactions of these molecules …

Hyperpolarization-activated and cyclic nucleotide–gated (HCN) ion channels are members
of the cyclic nucleotide–binding family and are crucial for regulating cellular automaticity in …

The precise mechanism by which propofol enhances GABAergic transmission remains
unclear, but much progress has been made regarding the underlying structural and dynamic …