Small but Mighty: Nanoparticles Probe Cellular Signaling Pathways

Abstract

Mechanical forces play key roles in regulating cellular pathways but are challenging to study using standard biological approaches. In a recent issue of Cell, Seo et al. (2016) present a platform for in vivo single-molecule manipulation, using magnetoplasmonic nanoparticles capable of imaging, localizing, and force-loading receptor proteins at high spatiotemporal resolution.

Figure 1. Mechanically Probing Cell-Signaling Pathways with Magnetoplasmonic Nanoparticles

Conventional micron-size probes can form multivalent interactions with cell surface receptors, perturbing cellular structure and immobilizing receptors, whereas magnetoplasmonic nanoparticles (MPNs) have the ability to bind monovalently (one-to-one), providing precise chemical and physical control of ligand-receptor binding. In the presence of a magnetic field, the MPNs can spatially localize and apply controlled mechanical forces to the targeted receptors.