Two-photon uncaging: New prospects in neuroscience and cellular biology

A Light-Responsive Self-Assembly Formed by a Cationic Azobenzene Derivative and SDS as a Drug Delivery System

“…However, with the development of optical techniques, investigators can now deliver light to any area of the brain, whether the surface or the deep tissues, in freely moving mammals64. In addition, recent advances in light source such as two-photon excitation and NIR-to-UV up conversion may address the bottleneck toward demonstrating the clinical feasibility65666768. Actually we are now developing a two-photon laser setup with our cooperator to solve the problem when using in clinic.…”

Multi-photon excitation in uncaging the small molecule bioregulator nitric oxide

“…The three-dimensional resolution opportunities provided by TPE have extensively been exploited in neuroscience both in tissue samples and in vivo [43][44][45][46][47][48][49][50]. The NIR TPE induced uncaging of neurotransmitters such as glutamate (figure 4) and has allowed the functional mapping of the respective receptors in neurons with high-resolution (μm), sub-cellular precision Figure 4.…”

Temporally resolved direct delivery of second messengers into cells using nanostraws

“…Significant research has gone into finding biological or chemical means to manipulate signaling cascades due to the difficulty of delivering these species across the cell membrane. 9,10 However, current methods, including gene modification, 11,12 optogenetics, 13 chemical genetics, [14][15][16] and molecular cages, [17][18][19] are limited due to off-target effects, difficulty in isolating a single control gene, poor temporal resolution, limited cargos, and photodamage. With the recent advent of cell-penetrating nanostructures, [20][21][22][23] it may now be possible to transport the components of biological signaling cascades directly through the cell membrane, obviating the need for gene alteration or chemical perturbations.…”