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Scientists Change Our Understanding of How Anaesthesia Messes With the Brain (sciencealert.com)
schwit1 shares a report from ScienceAlert: It's crazy to think that we still don't quite understand the mechanism behind one of the most common medical interventions -- general anaesthetic. But researchers in Australia just got a step closer by discovering that one of the most commonly used anesthetic drugs doesn't just put us to sleep; it also disrupts communication between brain cells. The team investigated the drug propofol, a super-popular option for surgeries worldwide. A potent sedative, the drug is thought to put us to sleep through its effect on the GABA neurotransmitter system, the main regulator of our sleep-and-wake cycles in the brain. But anyone who's been "put under" will know that waking up from a general anesthetic feels rather different from your usual morning grogginess. On top of that, some people can experience serious side-effects, so scientists have been trying to figure out what else the drugs might be doing in the brain.
Using live neuron cell samples from rats and fruit flies, the researchers were able to track neurotransmitter activity thanks to a super-resolution microscope, and discovered that propofol messes with a key protein that nerve cells use to communicate with each other. This protein, called syntaxin1A, isn't just found in animal models - people have it, too. And it looks like the anesthetic drug puts the brakes on this protein, making otherwise normal brain cell connections sluggish, at least for a while. The researchers think this disruption could be key to how propofol allows for pain-free surgery to take place - first it knocks us out as a normal sleeping pill would, and then takes things up a notch by disrupting brain connectivity. The research has been published in Cell Reports.
Using live neuron cell samples from rats and fruit flies, the researchers were able to track neurotransmitter activity thanks to a super-resolution microscope, and discovered that propofol messes with a key protein that nerve cells use to communicate with each other. This protein, called syntaxin1A, isn't just found in animal models - people have it, too. And it looks like the anesthetic drug puts the brakes on this protein, making otherwise normal brain cell connections sluggish, at least for a while. The researchers think this disruption could be key to how propofol allows for pain-free surgery to take place - first it knocks us out as a normal sleeping pill would, and then takes things up a notch by disrupting brain connectivity. The research has been published in Cell Reports.
Doctor: Now, just count backwards from 100... that's it... 99... 98... 97...
Nerd: Wow, that's too fucking long, doc. Let's try it my way: for (ctr=100; ctr>0; ctr--) echo ctr; [falls unconscious]
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I doubt the anesthesia has the same brain damaging effects
love is just extroverted narcissism
I had that shit for a colonoscopy. While I was under I had the craziest dreams.....
I dreamed that the US elected a retarded reality tv star as President, then started thinking about maybe electing another TV star who's only good for telling stay at home mothers what shoes to buy or books to read, as a replacement.
Fucked up weirdos were deciding they were girls one day and boys the next. A fat psycho in North Korea was going to start a war because he didnt like the names the TV reality star US President was calling him, China was sitting back just buying up its US rival, whining cry baby lady boys were crying in Europe about how everybody , just everybody was literal Hitler as a tidal wave of barbarians from the Bronze Age set up shop in their capitals, and "jazz hands" took over snowflake safe spaces.
Oh... wait..........