Journal article

Publication year: 2015

Pages: 701-707

Journal: ACS Chemical Neuroscience

Volume number: 6

Issue number: 5

ISSN: 1948-7193

DOI Link: https://doi.org/10.1021/acschemneuro.5b00030

Publisher: American Chemical Society

Abstract: 
Nicotinic acetylcholine receptors (nAChRs) are essential for cellular communication in higher organisms. Even though a vast pharmacological toolset to study cholinergic systems has been developed, control of endogenous neuronal nAChRs with high spatiotemporal precision has been lacking. To address this issue, we have generated photoswitchable nAChR agonists and re-evaluated the known photochromic ligand, BisQ Using electrophysiology, we found that one of our new compounds, AzoCholine, is an excellent photoswitchable agonist for neuronal alpha 7 nAChRs, whereas BisQ was confirmed to be an agonist for the muscle-type nAChR AzoCholine could be used to modulate cholinergic activity in a brain slice and in dorsal root ganglion neurons. In addition, we demonstrate light-dependent perturbation of behavior in the nematode, Caenorhabditis elegans.

Harvard Citation style: Damijonaitis, A., Broichhagen, J., Urushima, T., Huell, K., Nagpal, J., Laprell, L., et al. (2015) AzoCholine Enables Optical Control of Alpha 7 Nicotinic Acetylcholine Receptors in Neural Networks, ACS Chemical Neuroscience, 6(5), pp. 701-707. https://doi.org/10.1021/acschemneuro.5b00030

APA Citation style: Damijonaitis, A., Broichhagen, J., Urushima, T., Huell, K., Nagpal, J., Laprell, L., Schoenberger, M., Woodmansee, D., Rafiq, A., Sumser, M., Kummer, W., Gottschalk, A., & Trauner, D. (2015). AzoCholine Enables Optical Control of Alpha 7 Nicotinic Acetylcholine Receptors in Neural Networks. ACS Chemical Neuroscience. 6(5), 701-707. https://doi.org/10.1021/acschemneuro.5b00030