Reversible and irreversible inhibition by anesthetics of the calcium-induced luminescence of aequorin.

The actions of various kinds of so-called membrane-stabilizing drugs on Ca2+-induced flash intensity of purified aequorin, a photoprotein obtained from Aequorea aequorea, were examined. All drugs used in this experiment, including inhalational anesthetics, tetracaine, chlorpromazine, and morphine, depressed flash intensity, and the inhibition increased with time. The inhibition followed a mixture of reversible and irreversible kinetics. A method of analyzing irreversible kinetics is presented. The dissociation constants for reversible inhibition and the rate constants for irreversible inhibition are presented for each agent.