Radical pairs may play a role in xenon-induced general anesthesia

Abstract Understanding the mechanisms underlying general anesthesia would be a key step towards understanding consciousness. The process of xenon-induced general anesthesia has been shown to involve electron transfer, and the potency of xenon as a general anesthetic exhibits isotopic dependence. We...

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Autores principales:	Jordan Smith, Hadi Zadeh Haghighi, Dennis Salahub, Christoph Simon
Formato:	article
Lenguaje:	EN
Publicado:	Nature Portfolio 2021
Materias:	Medicine R Science Q
Acceso en línea:	https://doaj.org/article/030c524521794c18a99164ab698d7784
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spelling	oai:doaj.org-article:030c524521794c18a99164ab698d77842021-12-02T17:04:53ZRadical pairs may play a role in xenon-induced general anesthesia10.1038/s41598-021-85673-w2045-2322https://doaj.org/article/030c524521794c18a99164ab698d77842021-03-01T00:00:00Zhttps://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-85673-whttps://doaj.org/toc/2045-2322Abstract Understanding the mechanisms underlying general anesthesia would be a key step towards understanding consciousness. The process of xenon-induced general anesthesia has been shown to involve electron transfer, and the potency of xenon as a general anesthetic exhibits isotopic dependence. We propose that these observations can be explained by a mechanism in which the xenon nuclear spin influences the recombination dynamics of a naturally occurring radical pair of electrons. We develop a simple model inspired by the body of work on the radical-pair mechanism in cryptochrome in the context of avian magnetoreception, and we show that our model can reproduce the observed isotopic dependence of the general anesthetic potency of xenon in mice. Our results are consistent with the idea that radical pairs of electrons with entangled spins could be important for consciousness.Jordan SmithHadi Zadeh HaghighiDennis SalahubChristoph SimonNature PortfolioarticleMedicineRScienceQENScientific Reports, Vol 11, Iss 1, Pp 1-13 (2021)
institution	DOAJ
collection	DOAJ
language	EN
topic	Medicine R Science Q
spellingShingle	Medicine R Science Q Jordan Smith Hadi Zadeh Haghighi Dennis Salahub Christoph Simon Radical pairs may play a role in xenon-induced general anesthesia
description	Abstract Understanding the mechanisms underlying general anesthesia would be a key step towards understanding consciousness. The process of xenon-induced general anesthesia has been shown to involve electron transfer, and the potency of xenon as a general anesthetic exhibits isotopic dependence. We propose that these observations can be explained by a mechanism in which the xenon nuclear spin influences the recombination dynamics of a naturally occurring radical pair of electrons. We develop a simple model inspired by the body of work on the radical-pair mechanism in cryptochrome in the context of avian magnetoreception, and we show that our model can reproduce the observed isotopic dependence of the general anesthetic potency of xenon in mice. Our results are consistent with the idea that radical pairs of electrons with entangled spins could be important for consciousness.
format	article
author	Jordan Smith Hadi Zadeh Haghighi Dennis Salahub Christoph Simon
author_facet	Jordan Smith Hadi Zadeh Haghighi Dennis Salahub Christoph Simon
author_sort	Jordan Smith
title	Radical pairs may play a role in xenon-induced general anesthesia
title_short	Radical pairs may play a role in xenon-induced general anesthesia
title_full	Radical pairs may play a role in xenon-induced general anesthesia
title_fullStr	Radical pairs may play a role in xenon-induced general anesthesia
title_full_unstemmed	Radical pairs may play a role in xenon-induced general anesthesia
title_sort	radical pairs may play a role in xenon-induced general anesthesia
publisher	Nature Portfolio
publishDate	2021
url	https://doaj.org/article/030c524521794c18a99164ab698d7784
work_keys_str_mv	AT jordansmith radicalpairsmayplayaroleinxenoninducedgeneralanesthesia AT hadizadehhaghighi radicalpairsmayplayaroleinxenoninducedgeneralanesthesia AT dennissalahub radicalpairsmayplayaroleinxenoninducedgeneralanesthesia AT christophsimon radicalpairsmayplayaroleinxenoninducedgeneralanesthesia
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Radical pairs may play a role in xenon-induced general anesthesia

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