To fully describe the universal properties of alcohol pockets, more high resolution crystal structures of ion channels bound to alcohol are needed. Future studies exploring the link between changes in alcohol pocket chemistry and ion channel structure will be helpful for developing novel anti-addiction therapeutics that carry minimal dependency and high degree of selectivity. Whether there are differences in ethanol sensitivity amongst different GIRK subunits is poorly understood. Of particular note, GIRK2/3 channels are exclusively expressed in VTA DA neurons (Cruz et al., 2004) and exhibit reduced sensitivity to Gβγ (Jelacic et al., 2000).
