Optogenetics is a technological advance in the health field, being a scientific technique that uses light to control the brain.
Optogenetics has been used in animal brain research and in the treatment of human brain diseases. Thus, it is based on the insertion of light-sensitive proteins, called opsins, into brain cells.
Consequently, when exposed to light of a certain wavelength, these proteins activate or inhibit the activity of neurons. That is why optogenetics is based on genes to introduce light-sensitive proteins into specific cells.
Opsins are cell membrane proteins that transform optical input into electrochemical signals within the cell.
Dr. Karl Deisseroth of Stanford University initiated the development of optogenetics in 2005. For this reason, in 2010, Nature Methods magazine named it the most important method of the year.
It is important to recognize that neuroscientists Edward Boyden, Karl Deisseroth and Gero Miesenböck are the creators of optogenetics.
Optogenetics is a modern research tool that gives neuroscientists an incredible ability to control neurons. It is also a method of neuromodulation that uses genetic engineering. In this way, neurons are modified to express light-sensitive ion channels, allowing them to be specifically controlled by light.
Function:
- Studying the brain of animals to understand how it works. Also, how behaviors such as memory, learning and movement occur.
- Treating human brain diseases such as Parkinson’s disease, depression, epilepsy, Alzheimer’s, schizophrenia, among others.
- Recovering vision.
- The operation of this technique has some challenges and limitations, such as the penetration of light, which cannot easily pass through the skin and skull. In addition, light can be toxic to cells if used in too high doses.
Advantages:
- Manipulations are initiated and reversed with millisecond precision;
- Optogenetics can be used in a projection-specific manner.
- Modern tools of this type include fluorescent sensors to visualize signaling events in living cells and optogenetic actuators that allow manipulation of numerous cellular activities.
Disadvantages:
- The main disadvantages of this technological advancement, as a brain stimulation technique for humans, are the introduction of genes and its invasive nature.
- Viral-mediated gene transduction and insertion of optical fibers into the brain are not easily justified in terms of risk versus benefit.
- When lighting is turned off, neuronal excitation is quickly terminated. In addition to excitation, inhibition informs about the function of neurons within circuits.
Overall, optogenetics is one of the most fascinating and promising tools in current neuroscience. Thus, it combines genetics and optics to control neuronal activity with unprecedented precision.
