| 16873413 |
Guo J, Chen H, Puhl HL 3rd, Ikeda SR: Fluorophore-assisted light inactivation produces both targeted and collateral effects on N-type calcium channel modulation in rat sympathetic neurons. J Physiol. 2006 Oct 15;576(Pt 2):477-92. Epub 2006 Jul 27.
Fluorophore-assisted light inactivation (FALI) is a method to inactivate specific proteins on a time scale of seconds to minutes using either diffuse or coherent light. Here we examine a novel FALI modality that utilizes a fluorescein-conjugated polypeptide, alpha-bungarotoxin (BTX) and a 13 amino acid BTX-binding site engineered into the N-terminus of metabotropic glutamate receptor 8a (mGluR8a), a class C G-protein-coupled receptor (GPCR). The tagged mGluR8a was expressed in rat sympathetic neurons and labelled with fluorescein-conjugated BTX (FL-BTX). The efficacy of FALI was evaluated by monitoring mGluR8a-mediated inhibition of calcium currents (I (Ca)) using whole-cell voltage-clamp techniques. Following either wide-field or laser illumination of FL-BTX-labelled neurons, mGluR8a-mediated I (Ca) inhibition was greatly attenuated whereas holding current and basal I (Ca), measures of non-specific effects, were minimally affected. Sodium azide, a collision quencher of singlet oxygen, reduced the magnitude of FALI-mediated effects supporting a role for reactive oxygen species in the process. Although these results were consistent with an acute inactivation of mGluR8a, the intended target, two findings confounded this interpretation. First, effects on a natively expressed signalling pathway, alpha (2)-adrenergic receptor-mediated I (Ca) modulation, were observed following illumination of neurons expressing FL-BTX-labelled sodium channel beta2 subunits or ionotropic 5-HT (3) receptors, proteins with no overt relationship to GPCR signalling pathways. Second, GPCR-independent I (Ca) modulation induced with intracellular guanylyl imidophosphate was also attenuated by FALI. These data challenge the assumption that the fluorophore-tagged protein is the sole target of FALI and provide evidence that collateral damage to proximal proteins occurs following fluorophore illumination. |
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