Old theory, new evidence: inhalational anesthetics disrupt a collective quantum state of intraneuronal microtubules to cause unconsciousness.
Medical Gas Research August 18, 2025 DOI: 10.4103/mgr.medgasres-d-25-00111 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Theoretical or philosophical paper Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Key points | Argues that the common assumption that inhalational anesthetics produce unconsciousness through multiple molecular targets does not account for empirical evidence, such as the Meyer-Overton correlation, which the authors contend points instead to a single primary molecular target. |
Abstract
Contemporary researchers tend to assume that inhalational anesthetics cause unconsciousness by targeting a varying combination of ion channels and receptors, synaptic proteins, mitochondria, and cytoskeletal proteins including microtubules (MTs). However, this viewpoint does not account for striking empirical facts suggesting that unconsciousness is mediated by a single primary molecular target instead (Figure 1A and B). First, the effective dose (Figure 1A, vertical axis) of chemically diverse anesthetics is predicted by their solubility in olive oil (horizontal axis). The (log-)linear relation in Figure 1A is known as the Meyer-Overton rule or correlation.