G-Protein-coupled receptors mediate many of the hypnotic and analgesic actions of the drugs employed in anesthesia. Notably, opioid agonists represent the most successful and efficacious class of analgesic agents employed over the last century. Also, major clinical advances have been made by the study of alpha(2) adrenoceptor agonists, which possess both hypnotic and analgesic qualities that ar...

G protein-coupled receptors and heterotrimeric G proteins can diffuse laterally in the plasma membrane such that one receptor can catalyze the activation (GDP/GTP exchange) of multiple G proteins. In some cases, these processes are fast enough to support molecular signal amplification, where a single receptor maintains the activation of multiple G proteins at steady-state. Amplification in cell...