Article, originally published in Genetic Engineering & Biotechnology News
The discovery of natural and engineered light-sensitive proteins has developed a versatile and easy-to-use method in neuroscience called optogenetics that uses a light stimulus to precisely regulate neural activity in time and space, and has had an immense impact on understanding neural networks, neuronal function, and signaling pathways.
Scientists at the Ruhr-University Bochum, Germany, have now discovered a new optogenetic tool and demonstrated its potential in epilepsy research. This tool, a member of a family of proteins called opsins found in the brain and eyes in zebrafish, continuously activates an important intracellular signaling pathway called the Gi/o pathway.
Unlike other optogenetic proteins that are turned on when light is shone on them, this protein (Opn7b) is turned off by blue or green light. Characterization of Opn7b that the scientists reported in an article in Nature Communications, “Reverse optogenetics of G protein signaling by zebrafish non-visual opsin Opn7b for synchronization of neuronal networks,” will allow researchers to interrupt the continuously active Gi/o signaling pathway transiently, by shining blue or green light on Opn7b.
“So far in all seizure models, seizure induction is time-consuming and demands long-lasting light activation protocols with unreliable onset of seizures,” the authors noted. To demonstrate the application of Opn7b as a tool in epilepsy research, the Bochum researchers Jan Claudius Schwitalla, PhD, and Johanna Pakusch, PhD, engineered cells called pyramidal cells, in the cerebral cortex of mice to express the zebrafish receptor protein, Opn7b. When Opn7b is deactivated by light, the researchers showed, it triggers seizures in the animals that can be specifically controlled with light. The researchers hope it will be possible to use this optogenetic tool to better understand the underlying mechanisms and timeline of the development of epileptic seizures.