Exploring volatile general anesthetic binding to a closed membrane-bound bacterial voltage-gated sodium channel via computation.

ABSTRACT: Despite the clinical ubiquity of anesthesia, the molecular basis of anesthetic action is poorly understood. Amongst the many molecular targets proposed to contribute to anesthetic effects, the voltage gated sodium channels (VGSCs) should also be considered relevant, as they have been shown to be sensitive to all general anesthetics tested thus far. However, binding sites for VGSCs have not been identified. Moreover, the mechanism of inhibition is still largely unknown. The recently reported atomic structures of several members of the bacterial VGSC family offer the opportunity to shed light on the mechanism of action of anesthetics on these important ion channels. To this end, we have performed a molecular dynamics "flooding" simulation on a membrane-bound structural model of the archetypa

SUBMITTER: Raju SG 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3681623 | biostudies-literature | 2013

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature