Certain anesthetics may also possess powerful effects on the immune system that can combat viral and bacterial infections in the lung, according to a report published in Anesthesiology.
Here are five insights:
1. Researchers from Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore and University of Buffalo (N.Y.) exposed mice to both influenza virus and Streptococcus pneumoniae bacteria.
2. The research team found that giving the animals volatile anesthetics, such as halothane, led to decreased bacterial burden and lung injury following infection.
3. Animals that were exposed to halothane had 450-fold less viable bacteria compared with non-halothane exposed animals with respect to the initial inoculum dose.
4. "Given that these drugs are the most common anesthetics used in the operating room, there is a serious need to understand how they work and how we can use their immune effects to our advantage," says Krishnan Chakravarthy, MD, PhD, one of the study authors.
5. The investigators say they are currently testing an oral small molecule immune modulator in phase 2 clinical trials that acts like volatile anesthetics.