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Review
. 2017 Aug:45:202-209.
doi: 10.1016/j.conb.2017.05.021. Epub 2017 Jul 6.

Precise modulation of neuronal activity with synthetic photoswitchable ligands

Michael A Kienzler  1 , Ehud Y Isacoff  2
Affiliations
Review

Precise modulation of neuronal activity with synthetic photoswitchable ligands

Michael A Kienzler et al. Curr Opin Neurobiol. 2017 Aug.
No abstract available

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Conflict of interest statement

Conflicts of interest: None.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Strategies for incorporating synthetic photoswitches into neuroscience tools. A) The trans and cis isomers of azobenzene can be interconverted with different wavelengths of light. Cartoons show how the core azobenzene structure can be elaborated into photoswitchable tools. B) Photochromic ligands (PCLs) switch between active and inactive compounds that freely diffuse and function with endogenous channels and receptors. C) Photoswitchable Tethered Ligands (PTLs) covalently attach to an engineered protein to provide photocontrol. D) Photoswitchable orthogonal remotely tethered ligands (PORTLs) are conceptually a cross between PCLs and PTLs, they use a self-labeling protein fused to the target protein and a photoswitch ligand that has long linker to accommodate attachment farther from the ligand binding site.
Figure 2
Figure 2
A cartoon of a hypothetical tripartite synapse. Here each piece, glia, presynaptic cell, and postsynaptic cell are all expressing a different form of receptor, which is labeled with an orthogonal photoswitchable ligand (PORTLs and PTLs). The synaptic cleft also has a freely diffusing PCL. Distinctly different absorption spectra for each photoswitchable ligand would allow exact spatiotemporal control at the subcellular level.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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