Brain-penetrant microtubule-stabilizer epothilone B delays isoflurane-induced unconsciousness in mice.
Neuropharmacology April 1, 2026 Yixiang Huang, Zitong Qiu, Xinyue Yu et al. 2 citations
Stabilizing brain microtubules can make animals resistant to anesthesia. Mice given a single dose of a microtubule-stabilizing drug showed a 29-second delay in losing consciousness under isoflurane the next day. This significant within-subject effect, with a Cohen's d of 0.8, suggests that anesthetic binding to microtubules contributes to unconsciousness. This supports theories proposing consciousness arises from quantum states within these neural structures, and hints at potential sex differences in anesthetic mechanisms.