Volatile Anaesthetics - Where Next?

Have been meaning to "blog" something about this about a year before I started blogging.

This research area is out of my radar objectively, but not subjectively.

In Feb 2007, the Journal of Neuroscience published:- "The Inhalation Anesthetic Isoflurane Induces a Vicious Cycle of Apoptosis and Amyloid ß-Protein Accumulation" by Xie et al

doi:10.1523/JNEUROSCI.5320-06.2007

Full Text

Also worth a mention is the work of Prof. (of Anesthesia) Rod Eckenhoff & colleagues at the Department of Anesthesiology and Critical Care, University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, Philadelphia

Thanks to PubMed Central (PMC), here is a link to 13 peer reviewed and published articles of Eckenhoff's work.

Whilst not OA yet, the following are of interest:-

1) Brain and behavior changes in 12-month-old Tg2576 and nontransgenic mice exposed to anesthetics
2)Inhaled anesthetics elicit region-specific changes in protein expression in mammalian brain

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Most recently, Xie et al has had published "The common inhalation anesthetic isoflurane induces caspase activation and increases amyloid beta-protein level in vivo"

Where we appear to be now is "These findings indicate that inhaled anesthetics influence cognition and amyloidogenesis, but that the mechanistic relationship remains unclear."



Conclusions: Inhaled anesthetics enhance oligomerization
and cytotoxicity of Alzheimer disease-associated peptides. In
addition to the possibility of a general mechanism for anesthetic
neurotoxicity, these results call for further evaluation of
the interaction between neurodegenerative disorders, dementia,
and inhalational anesthesia.

WIKI Section

There are lots of other anaesthetics that could be used other than isoflurane. Sevoflurane and Desflurane are volatiles available now. Xenon is being trialled. Intravenous anaesthetics include propofol which is now off-patent and getting cheaper.