[175 years of anesthesia and narcosis-Towards a "human right to unconsciousness"]

Learning from natural design for local anesthetic delivery

There is a sizeable but unfilled need for drug delivery systems that prolong the duration of action and reduce the systemic toxicity of local anesthetics. Inspired by the interactions of anesthetics with their natural binding sites on sodium channels, Ji et al. designed self-assembled nanostructures that achieve specific delivery and sustained release of anesthetics.