Functional Consequences of the accumulation of psychopharmacological drugs in „lipid rafts“ on ligand-gated ion channels

? Lipid rafts? are specific membrane microdomains that are enriched with cholesterol and glycosphingolopids. Biochemically, they are characterized as detergent-resistant membranes that float at a light buoyant density on sucrose gradient density centrifugation. „Lipid rafts“ are thought to participate in a variety of cellular functions, such as membrane trafficking and signal transduction. We found an enrichment of different psychopharmacological drugs in „lipid rafts“. This seems to play an important role in the functional modulation of the 5HT3-receptor and the GABAA-receptor, which also accumulate in these membrane microdomains. In conclusion, the enrichement of antidepressants and antipsychotics in „lipid rafts“ may be a prerequisite for their antagonistic effect on ligand-gated ion channels.