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Light‐induced regulation of ligand‐gated channel activity
Author(s) -
Bregestovski Piotr,
Maleeva Galyna,
Gorostiza Pau
Publication year - 2018
Publication title -
british journal of pharmacology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.432
H-Index - 211
eISSN - 1476-5381
pISSN - 0007-1188
DOI - 10.1111/bph.14022
Subject(s) - neuroscience , acetylcholine receptor , nicotinic agonist , receptor , glutamate receptor , ligand gated ion channel , ion channel , acetylcholine , biology , computational biology , biophysics , biochemistry , pharmacology
The control of ligand-gated receptors with light using photochromic compounds has evolved from the first handcrafted examples to accurate, engineered receptors, whose development is supported by rational design, high-resolution protein structures, comparative pharmacology and molecular biology manipulations. Photoswitchable regulators have been designed and characterized for a large number of ligand-gated receptors in the mammalian nervous system, including nicotinic acetylcholine, glutamate and GABA receptors. They provide a well-equipped toolbox to investigate synaptic and neuronal circuits in all-optical experiments. This focused review discusses the design and properties of these photoswitches, their applications and shortcomings and future perspectives in the field.