Propofol inhibits veratrine-stimulated phosphoinositide breakdown in the rat brain

The intravenous general anesthetic propofol was found to inhibit the phosph oinositide breakdown response to veratrine with an IC50 value of 79 mu M. T his inhibition was not affected by the addition of flurazepam (0.1, 1, 10 m u M) to the assay. The responses to noradrenaline and carbachol were not af fected by propofol. It is concluded that inhibition of veratrine-stimulated phosphoinositide breakdown can be used as a simple model system to investi gate the potencies at sodium channels of general and as well as local anest hetics. (C) 1998 Prous Science. All rights reserved.