Search resultsEthanol's molecular targets
Title
Ethanol's molecular targets
Publication type
Journal Article
Year of Publication
2008
Authors
Journal
Science Signaling
Volume
1
Issue
28
Date published
2008
ISBN
19450877 (ISSN)
Keywords
4 aminobutyric acid receptor, alcohol, Alcohol Drinking, alcohol intoxication, Alcoholic Intoxication, Animal, Animals, binding site, Binding Sites, cell membrane, chemistry, drinking behavior, drug effect, Drug Tolerance, Ethanol, gene expression regulation, human, Humans, ion channel, Ion Channels, Kinetics, membrane lipid, Membrane Lipids, metabolism, pathophysiology, protein, protein binding, Proteins, Receptors, GABA, review
Abstract
Ethanol produces a wide variety of behavioral and physiological effects in the body, but exactly how it acts to produce these effects is still poorly understood. Although ethanol was long believed to act nonspecifically through the disordering of lipids in cell membranes, proteins are at the core of most current theories of its mechanisms of action. Although ethanol affects various biochemical processes such as neurotransmitter release, enzyme function, and ion channel kinetics, we are only beginning to understand the specific molecular sites to which ethanol molecules bind to produce these myriad effects. For most effects of ethanol characterized thus far, it is unknown whether the protein whose function is being studied actually binds ethanol, or if alcohol is instead binding to another protein that then indirectly affects the functioning of the protein being studied. In this Review, we describe criteria that should be considered when identifying alcohol binding sites and highlight a number of proteins for which there exists considerable molecular-level evidence for distinct ethanol binding sites.