Abstract
Reactive Oxygen Species (ROS) play an essential dual role in living systems. Healthy levels of ROS modulate several signaling pathways, but at the same time, when they exceed normal physiological amounts, they work in the opposite direction, playing pivotal functions in the pathophysiology of multiple severe medical conditions (i.e., cancer, diabetes, neurodegenerative and cardiovascular diseases, and aging). Therefore, the research for methods to detect their levels via light-sensitive fluorescent probes has been extensively studied over the years. However, this is not the only link between light and ROS. In fact, the modulation of ROS mediated by light has been exploited already for a long time. In this review, we report the state of the art, as well as recent developments, in the field of photostimulation of oxidative stress, from photobiomodulation (PBM) mediated by naturally expressed light-sensitive proteins to the most recent optogenetic approaches, and finally, we describe the main methods of exogenous stimulation, in particular highlighting the new insights based on optically driven ROS modulation mediated by polymeric materials.
Highlights
For all living aerobic organisms, molecular oxygen is the central compound for cellular respiration, being the ultimate electron acceptor in the biochemical cycle for Adenosine Triphosphate (ATP) production
We report the state of the art, as well as recent developments, in the field of photostimulation of oxidative stress, from photobiomodulation (PBM) mediated by naturally expressed light-sensitive proteins to the most recent optogenetic approaches, and we describe the main methods of exogenous stimulation, in particular highlighting the new insights based on optically driven Reactive Oxygen Species (ROS) modulation mediated by polymeric materials
In vitro experiments conducted on chemically oxidative stressed cortical neurons evidenced that PBM led to increased levels of membrane potential (MMP) and ATP and reduced ROS while control cells had a small increase in ROS together with the MMP and ATP levels (Figures 2(a) and 2(b))
Summary
For all living aerobic organisms, molecular oxygen is the central compound for cellular respiration, being the ultimate electron acceptor in the biochemical cycle for ATP production. Photostimulation, from photobiomodulation (PBM) mediated by naturally expressed light-sensitive proteins to optogenetic approaches, followed by describing the main methods to artificially enhance light sensitivity in living cells and exogenously stimulate living organism biological activity, in particular highlighting the new insights based on optically driven ROS modulation mediated by polymeric materials.
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