Optical photorelease of dopamine in freely moving animals

VICTORIA ANDINO PAVLOVSKY; ANNIE DA COSTA SOUZA; SIDARTA RIBEIRO; ROBERTO ETCHENIQUE

Huerta Grande

Congreso; XXIX Congreso de la SAN; 2014

Sociedad Argentina de Investigacion en Neurociencias

Optical photorelease of dopamine in freely moving animals.Ruthenium-based caged compounds are complexes capable of releasing biologically relevant molecules when irradiated with visible light. This raises the possibility of stimulating neurons and tissues with high spatial and temporal resolution. In past studies, they have been used in different systems to activate neuronal receptors in vitro as well as in vivo experiments. The last member incorporated to the ruthenium-based caged compounds family is Rubi-Dopa, a complex that releases the neuromodulator Dopamine when irradiated with blue/green light. This complex has recently been used to activate dopamine receptors at the level of single dendritic spines. In the present work, we report for the first time the use of a ruthenium-based caged compound in live, freely-moving rats. The animals were chronically implanted in prefrontal cortex with a multi-electrode matrix containing a cannula through which the complex is injected and a fiber optic is placed that allows the light to activate it. As the animal is allowed to freely explore the arena, neuronal activity is recorded before, during and after the dopamine release. We found significant changes in neuronal activity induced by dopamine uncaging, as changes in the strength and frequency range of the phase-amplitude modulation in prefrontal cortex. Thus, we present here a novel method for the administration and activation of ruthenium-based caged compounds in live, freely-moving animals, opening the possibility to stimulate many kinds