By disrupting a natural process used by developing mammalian brains to
prune and delete surplus neurons, surgical anesthetics and other drugs
that suppress brain activity in fetuses and infants can trigger permanent
pathological brain damage. That type of damage can be prevented by drug
interventions that block one or more "upstream" events that otherwise
would lead to the release of "Cytochrome C", a messenger molecule that
triggers apoptosis (programmed cell death) among immature neurons.
Lithium is a potent protective agent that can be coadministered along
with ketamine or other NMDA-acting or GABA-acting anesthetics and
anticonvulsants. Xenon gas triggers only mild damage, and can enable
improved anesthesia when combined with other drugs. Other protective
drugs (also called safener drugs), and treatments that can prevent or
minimize fetal alcohol syndrome, also are disclosed.