Work

Fast and slow: Recording neuromodulator dynamics across both transient and chronic time scales

Year: 2024

Type: article

Abstract: Neuromodulators transform animal behaviors. Recent research has demonstrated the importance of both sustained and transient change in neuromodulators, likely due to tonic and phasic neuromodulator release. However, no method could simultaneously record both types of dynamics. Fluorescence lifetime of optical reporters could offer a solution because it allows high temporal resolution and is impervious to sensor expression differences across chronic periods. Nevertheless, no fluorescence lifetime change across the entire classes of neuromodulator sensors was previously known. Unexpectedly, we find that several intensity-based neuromodulator sensors also exhibit fluorescence lifetime responses. Furthermore, we show that lifetime measures in vivo neuromodulator dynamics both with high temporal resolution and with consistency across animals and time. Thus, we report a method that can simultaneously measure neuromodulator change over transient and chronic time scales, promising to reveal the roles of multi-time scale neuromodulator dynamics in diseases, in response to therapies, and across development and aging.

Source: Science Advances

DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.adi0643

Authors: Pingchuan Ma, Peter Chen, Elizabeth Tilden, Samarth Aggarwal, Anna Oldenborg, Yao Chen

Institution: Washington University in St. Louis

Language: English

Topic: Advanced Fluorescence Microscopy Techniques

Subfield: Biophysics

Field: Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology

Domain: Life Sciences

SDG: Good health and well-being

Open Access status: gold

Estimated APC paid: $4,500