Simulations of general anaesthetics in membranes at raised pressures: the search for mechanisms for pressure reversal of general anaesthetics

Experiments have shown that general anaesthetics lose their efficacy at pressures of around 20 MPa, but their efficacy is recovered at pressures of around 40 MPa. Molecular dynamics simulations of the general anaesthetic halothane in DMPC or POPC bilayers show that halothane aggregates inside the me...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Molecular simulation 2021-02, Vol.47 (2-3), p.91-100
Main Author: Chau, P.-L.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Agglomeration
Anesthetics
DMPC
general anaesthetics
halothane
isoflurane
Membranes
Molecular dynamics
Molecular dynamics simulations
Physics
POPC
pressure reversal
Simulation
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Experiments have shown that general anaesthetics lose their efficacy at pressures of around 20 MPa, but their efficacy is recovered at pressures of around 40 MPa. Molecular dynamics simulations of the general anaesthetic halothane in DMPC or POPC bilayers show that halothane aggregates inside the membrane at 20 MPa, but not at atmospheric pressure, nor at 40 MPa. The parallelism in effects suggests that aggregation could conceivably be the mechanism for pressure reversal. Further molecular dynamics simulations of another general anaesthetic, isoflurane, in POPC show that isoflurane does not aggregate at 20 MPa. This and other quantitative considerations show that general anaesthetic aggregation inside the membrane could not be the mechanism for pressure reversal.
ISSN:0892-7022
1029-0435
DOI:10.1080/08927022.2018.1560438