Optogenetic is a technology that regulates the activity of neurons by transfecting microbial opsin gene into the nerve cells of lactating animals, so that they can respond to light. The human body will be exposed to different wavelengths of light in daily life, but light irradiation will not easily change the genes of nerve cells. The key of photogenetics technology is to use the opsin gene of an exogenous microorganism, such as bacterialrhodopsin (BR) and the widely used channelrhodopsin (ChR). Opsin is the main component of photosensitive substances in animal visual system. It can sense the irradiation of light and produce corresponding chemical reactions.
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The basic treatment method of optogenetics is to transfect the opsin gene of these microorganisms into mammalian brain tissue with virus vector. The treatment object can be living animal brain or isolated animal brain. After the exogenous opsin gene is transferred into the brain nerve cells of the target organism, the expressed opsin can undergo chemical reaction through the action of light. The change of opsin can excite or inhibit the excitation of neurons, so as to activate or inactivate nerve cells.
At present, the application of optogenetics technology still stays in the basic research stage of neuroscience, and there is still a certain distance from the real clinical treatment and human application, but this does not prevent researchers from using this technology. As a cross era technology, the application of optogenetics in animal neuroscience makes it possible to complete some experiments that were once impossible or too difficult, and promotes the rapid development of some fields in neuroscience to a great extent.
Study on synaptic plasticity
Dendritic spines are important structures for brain neurons to receive and transmit information. They are the key parts of forming synapses and play an important role in synaptic plasticity. More than 90% of excitatory synapses exist in the head of dendritic spines. The application of optogenetic technology can detect the signals of multiple dendritic spines at the same time, breaking through the research at the level of single synapse.
Treatment of nervous system diseases
Optogenetic techniques can be used to study the persistence or discontinuation of severe status epilepticus. ChR2 was expressed in specific cell populations by photogenetic technology. Under light stimulation, animals with cervical spinal cord injury can resume respiratory movement. Optogenetic technology also provides new insights and ideas for the neural mechanism of Parkinson's disease.
Application in nervous system research
At present, optogenetics is more used in basic research. It is more common to combine optogenetics with functional exploration of nervous system or regulation of neural pathway mechanism. Photogenetics can solve the problem of extracellular regulation of nerve cells.
Combined with CRISPR/cas9 Technology
Photogenetics technology first used traditional transgenic technology for processing. Combining photogenetics technology with CRISPR/Cas9 technology can realize high-precision gene level processing.
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