Abstract
A study has been carried out into the effects of clinically important antisickling and anaesthetic substances and ionophoric antibiotics on the activities of (Na
+,K
+) - and (Ca
2+, Mg
2+)-ATPases of the human erythrocyte membrane. In general, these drugs, with the exception of nystatin, inhibit both types of enzymic activities but with varying degrees of efficacy. (Ca
2+, Mg
2+)-ATPase was more sensitive to the lipophilic anaesthetics and (Na
+, K
+)-ATPase to the ionophoric antibiotic, amphotericin B. These results are explained in the light of the partition coefficients of these drugs in erythrocyte membranes, their effects on the fluidity of the erythrocytes membranes, the changes they induce in the permeability properties of erythrocytes and the subsequent effect of procaine on sickling of erythrocytes, and their potential interaction with specific membrane components.