An Experimental Design I wrote as a researcher at UCSF proposing the use of small interfering RNA (siRNA) to elucidate the mechanisms by which inhaled anesthetics work. More specifically the idea is to infuse siRNA into the lumbar region of the spinal cord of rat to perturb the receptors thought to be responsible for inducing general anesthesia (e.g., Glycine, NMDA, etc.).
siRNA experiment proposal
The main benefit of this approach is that it bypasses the need to engineer genetic mutant strains (say, of mice - which we also did). This pretty standard approach is financially costly, time consuming, and massively problematic - e.g., untoward consequences of knocking out glycine receptors.
The attached protocol proposes a more "high throughput" methodology using synthetic siRNA along with a surgical method of placing an intrathecal catheter into the lumbar region for direct infusion of the drug.
Initial results were promising. While I didn't stay long enough in the lab to prove it out, the control vehicle (scrambled sequence) showed strong diffusion into both the ventral and dorsal regions of the spinal cord. So there is no reason - in principle anyway - to think that the actual sequences of interest couldn't be delivered to the appropriate regions of the spinal cord.
I can't say that the method would have worked - biology can be fickle - but I a still curious to see if this could actually work. If so it could be a pretty elegant way of answering some fundamental questions about the nature of inhaled anesthetic action.