TABLE 1

Effect of alcohols and anesthetics on pentameric ligand-gated ion channels.

Arrows indicate up- or downregulation of ligand-gated ion channel function by ethanol, short-, and long-chain alcohols and anesthetics in various in vitro model systems as described in this review.

Channel	In Vitro Model	Ethanol/Short-Chain Alcohols	Anesthetics/Long-Chain Alcohols
α/β/γ GABA_A	DRG neurons^{^a} Xenopus oocytes^{^b}^,^{^c}	↑	↑
ρ GABA_A	Xenopus oocytes^{^d}	↓	↓
Glycine	Xenopus oocytes^{^e}	↑	↑
Nicotinic acetylcholine	Neurons^{^f}^,^{^g}	↑	↓
Nicotinic acetylcholine	HEK cells^{^g}	↑	↓
5HT₃	Xenopus oocytes^{^h}	↑	↑ (Anesthetics)
5HT₃	N1E-115 neuroblastoma cells^ⁱ	↑	↓ (Long-chain alcohols)
GLIC	Xenopus oocytes^{^j}^,^{^k}	↑ (Superphysiologic ethanol concentrations)	↓
ELIC	Xenopus oocytes^{^l}	↓ (Ethanol)	↓ (Volatile anesthetics)

DRG, doral root ganglion.
↵a Nakahiro et al., 1996.
↵b Dildy-Mayfield et al., 1996.
↵c Mihic et al., 1994.
↵d Mihic and Harris, 1996.
↵e Mascia et al., 1996a.
↵f Flood and Role, 1998.
↵g Zuo et al., 2001.
↵h Machu and Harris, 1994.
↵i Jenkins et al., 1996.
↵j Weng et al., 2010.
↵k Howard et al., 2011.
↵l Spurny et al., 2013.