Neurotransmission is mediated by electrical pulses that are generated by coordinated activation and deactivation of ion channels in the plasma membrane of neuronal cells. The ion channels control the plasma membrane potential (V m) by influx/efflux of ions. In our retina, the V m is controlled by light and photo-excitable ion channels in photoreceptor cells and voltage-dependent ion channels in neuronal ganglion cells, which transmit visual signal to the brain. In contrast, patients with visual impairment and blindness, e.g., with age-related macular degeneration, lose response to light due to irreversible elimination of photoreceptor cells. Therefore, restoring vision is potentially possible by direct photoexcitation of neuronal ganglion cells with photoresponsive V m-controlling molecules. As one of such molecules, we have focused on donor-acceptor-linked molecules (D–A molecules) capable of photoinduced intramolecular long-lived charge separation [1–4]. In this symposium, I will introduce my recent research mainly on drug delivery system of D–A molecules to the retina in mice [5].REFERENCES[1] Imahori, H. et al., J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2001, 123, 2607–2617.[2] Numata, T. et al., J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2012, 134, 6092–6095.[3] Takano, Y. et al., Chem. Sci. 2016, 7, 3331–3337.[4] Numata, T. et al., Cell. Physiol. Biochem. 2020, 54, 899–916.[5] Fukuda, R. et al., Adv. Therap. 2023, 6, 2300186.