Laser-induced perturbation into molecular dynamics localized in neuronal cell

Abstract

Molecular dynamics at synaptic terminals in neuronal cells is essential for synaptic plasticity and subsequent modulation of cellular functions in a neuronal network. For realizing artificial control of living neuronal network, we demonstrate laser-induced perturbation into molecular dynamics in the neuronal cells. The optical trapping of cellular molecules such as synaptic vesicles or neural cell adhesion molecules labeled with quantum dots was evaluated by fluorescence imaging and fluorescence correlation spectroscopy. The trapping and assembling dynamics was revealed that the molecular motion was constrained at the focal spot of a focused laser beam due to optical trapping force. Our method has a potential to manipulate synaptic transmission at single synapse level.