Inhibitory synapses - Anaesthetics set their sites on ion channels

The effects of alcohol and general anaesthetics are obvious to everybody, but where in the brain — and how — do these agents act? By making hybrid GABAA- and glycine-receptor channels, one group has now identified two amino-acid residues that seem to be crucial for this process. Amino-acid substitutions at these positions remove the effects of anaesthetics, but it's not yet possible to tell whether these amino acids represent a direct binding site, or whether they are involved more indirectly.