ABSTRACT
Many of the early studies of effects of alcohol in the nervous system have been framed and interpreted to determine whether the primary target of alcohol’s action is the lipid or the protein components of brain. We suggest that it is necessary to consider functioning membrane proteins and their lipid environment (as well as the various interfaces between them, such as lipid-protein, lipid-protein-water, and protein-lipid-protein, etc.) as a dynamic system, in which the small amphiphilic alcohol molecule will interact simultaneously with a number of targets.
