Thermosensitive Ion Channel Activation in Single Neuronal Cells by Using Surface‐Engineered Plasmonic Nanoparticles

Abstract

Controlling cell functions using external photoresponsive nanomaterials has enormous potential for the development of cell-engineering technologies and intractable disease therapies,b ut the former currently requires genetic modification of the target cells.W ep resent am ethod using plasma-membrane-targeted gold nanorods (pm-AuNRs) prepared with ac ationic protein/lipid complex to activate at hermosensitive cation channel, TRPV1, in intact neuronal cells.Highly localized photothermal heat generation mediated by the pm-AuNRs induced Ca 2+ influx solely by TRPV1 activation. In contrast, the use of previously reported cationic AuNRs that are coated with ac onventional synthetic polymer also led to photoinduced Ca 2+ influx, but this influx resulted from membrane damage.Our method provides an optogenetic platform without the need for prior genetic engineering of the target cells and might be useful for novel TRPV1-targeted phototherapeutic approaches.

Photocatalytic Activity of Polymer Nanoparticles Modulates Intracellular Calcium Dynamics and Reactive Oxygen Species in HEK-293 Cells

“…Not invasive ways to modulate calcium ions flow are attracting considerable attention as well, given their key role in cell metabolism and inter-cell communication processes. Several attempts have been reported to modulate Ca 2+ by external mediators, for instance by using magnetic NPs (Huang et al, 2010 ; Stanley et al, 2012 ; Bar-Shir et al, 2014 ; Lee et al, 2014 ; Chen et al, 2015 ; Wheeler et al, 2016 ), metallic NPs (Nakatsuji et al, 2015 ), organic molecules and polymers (Stein et al, 2013 ; Lyu et al, 2016 ; Takano et al, 2016 ) and other carbon-based materials (Miyako et al, 2014 ; Chechetka et al, 2016 ).…”

Next-generation probes, particles, and proteins for neural interfacing

“…Furthermore, genetically targeted photothermal stimulation could be achieved by expressing a heat-sensitive ion channel such as TRPV1 ( Fig. 6E ) ( 169 ). Alternatively, nanoparticles can be functionalized with antibodies against specific ion channels or receptors, avoiding the need for gene therapy ( 162 ).…”

Thermal Optofluidics: Principles and Applications

“…Recently, the manipulation of cellular activity, such as light‐mediated neuromodulation techniques, has become more popular in physiological and clinical applications, because its high spatial and temporal resolution deliver real benefits to neuroscience research . For example, as shown in Figure c, the reversible inhibition of neural spiking activity in a localized area was achieved via plasmonic gold nanorod‐mediated photothermal stimulation under NIR illumination .…”

“…The optothermal microfluidic has enabled living cell trapping and manipulations, where plasmonic heat‐induced natural convection and thermophoresis provides a larger manipulation range . Because of its unique properties of remote control and ultrafast on‐demand nanoscale thermal production, it has also been widely employed in biosensing and manipulation of cellular functions, such as ultrafast plasmonic PCR, intracellular gene delivery and release, as well as single‐cell neural activity control …”