Broad-Band Activatable White-Opsin

Currently, the use of optogenetic sensitization of retinal cells combined with activation/inhibition has the potential to be an alternative to retinal implants that would require electrodes inside every single neuron for high visual resolution. However, clinical translation of optogenetic activation...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:PloS one 2015-09, Vol.10 (9), p.e0136958-e0136958
Main Authors: Batabyal, Subrata, Cervenka, Gregory, Ha, Ji Hee, Kim, Young-Tae, Mohanty, Samarendra
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Activation
Biophysics
Cell Membrane - metabolism
Channelrhodopsins
Cloning
Cytomegalovirus
Electronic implants
Excitability
Excitation spectra
Gene Expression
Genes
HEK293 Cells
Humans
Implants
Light
Light emitting diodes
Luminous intensity
Neurosciences
Opsins
Opsins - genetics
Opsins - metabolism
Optical properties
Optogenetics - methods
Patch-Clamp Techniques
Photoelectric effect
Photoelectric emission
Physiological aspects
Physiology
Proteins
Restoration
Retina
Retinal cells
Sensitivity
Sensory stimulation
Spectral sensitivity
Transplants & implants
Visible spectrum
White light
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Currently, the use of optogenetic sensitization of retinal cells combined with activation/inhibition has the potential to be an alternative to retinal implants that would require electrodes inside every single neuron for high visual resolution. However, clinical translation of optogenetic activation for restoration of vision suffers from the drawback that the narrow spectral sensitivity of an opsin requires active stimulation by a blue laser or a light emitting diode with much higher intensities than ambient light. In order to allow an ambient light-based stimulation paradigm, we report the development of a 'white-opsin' that has broad spectral excitability in the visible spectrum. The cells sensitized with white-opsin showed excitability at an order of magnitude higher with white light compared to using only narrow-band light components. Further, cells sensitized with white-opsin produced a photocurrent that was five times higher than Channelrhodopsin-2 under similar photo-excitation conditions. The use of fast white-opsin may allow opsin-sensitized neurons in a degenerated retina to exhibit a higher sensitivity to ambient white light. This property, therefore, significantly lowers the activation threshold in contrast to conventional approaches that use intense narrow-band opsins and light to activate cellular stimulation.
ISSN:1932-6203
1932-6203
DOI:10.1371/journal.pone.0136958