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Possible magneto-mechanical and magneto-thermal mechanisms of ion channel activation in magnetogenetics

The palette of tools for perturbation of neural activity is continually expanding. On the forefront of this expansion is magnetogenetics, where ion channels are genetically engineered to be closely coupled to the iron-storage protein ferritin. Initial reports on magnetogenetics have sparked a vigoro...

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Autor principal: Barbic, Mladen
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: eLife Sciences Publications, Ltd 2019
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6693891/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31373554
http://dx.doi.org/10.7554/eLife.45807
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author Barbic, Mladen
author_facet Barbic, Mladen
author_sort Barbic, Mladen
collection PubMed
description The palette of tools for perturbation of neural activity is continually expanding. On the forefront of this expansion is magnetogenetics, where ion channels are genetically engineered to be closely coupled to the iron-storage protein ferritin. Initial reports on magnetogenetics have sparked a vigorous debate on the plausibility of physical mechanisms of ion channel activation by means of external magnetic fields. The criticism leveled against magnetogenetics as being physically implausible is based on the specific assumptions about the magnetic spin configurations of iron in ferritin. I consider here a wider range of possible spin configurations of iron in ferritin and the consequences these might have in magnetogenetics. I propose several new magneto-mechanical and magneto-thermal mechanisms of ion channel activation that may clarify some of the mysteries that presently challenge our understanding of the reported biological experiments. Finally, I present some additional puzzles that will require further theoretical and experimental investigation.
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spelling pubmed-66938912019-08-16 Possible magneto-mechanical and magneto-thermal mechanisms of ion channel activation in magnetogenetics Barbic, Mladen eLife Neuroscience The palette of tools for perturbation of neural activity is continually expanding. On the forefront of this expansion is magnetogenetics, where ion channels are genetically engineered to be closely coupled to the iron-storage protein ferritin. Initial reports on magnetogenetics have sparked a vigorous debate on the plausibility of physical mechanisms of ion channel activation by means of external magnetic fields. The criticism leveled against magnetogenetics as being physically implausible is based on the specific assumptions about the magnetic spin configurations of iron in ferritin. I consider here a wider range of possible spin configurations of iron in ferritin and the consequences these might have in magnetogenetics. I propose several new magneto-mechanical and magneto-thermal mechanisms of ion channel activation that may clarify some of the mysteries that presently challenge our understanding of the reported biological experiments. Finally, I present some additional puzzles that will require further theoretical and experimental investigation. eLife Sciences Publications, Ltd 2019-08-02 /pmc/articles/PMC6693891/ /pubmed/31373554 http://dx.doi.org/10.7554/eLife.45807 Text en © 2019, Barbic http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) , which permits unrestricted use and redistribution provided that the original author and source are credited.
spellingShingle Neuroscience
Barbic, Mladen
Possible magneto-mechanical and magneto-thermal mechanisms of ion channel activation in magnetogenetics
title Possible magneto-mechanical and magneto-thermal mechanisms of ion channel activation in magnetogenetics
title_full Possible magneto-mechanical and magneto-thermal mechanisms of ion channel activation in magnetogenetics
title_fullStr Possible magneto-mechanical and magneto-thermal mechanisms of ion channel activation in magnetogenetics
title_full_unstemmed Possible magneto-mechanical and magneto-thermal mechanisms of ion channel activation in magnetogenetics
title_short Possible magneto-mechanical and magneto-thermal mechanisms of ion channel activation in magnetogenetics
title_sort possible magneto-mechanical and magneto-thermal mechanisms of ion channel activation in magnetogenetics
topic Neuroscience
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6693891/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31373554
http://dx.doi.org/10.7554/eLife.45807
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