Laser-induced perturbation to neuronal cells with optical trapping

Neurons form complex networks and communicate through synaptic connections. The molecular dynamics of cell surface molecules at synaptic terminals are essential for elucidating synaptic transmission and plasticity in biological neural networks. To achieve artificial control of synaptic transmission in neural networks at the single-synapse level, we propose and demonstrate the application of optical trapping for laser-induced perturbation to cellular molecules on neurons. In this study, we investigated the effects of optical forces on the dynamics of cell molecules in an optical trap on neurons. The diffusion properties of the cell surface molecules under optical trapping were evaluated using fluorescence analysis with single-particle tracking and fluorescence correlation spectroscopy. Molecular diffusion at the cell surface of neurons was compared to that of lipid molecules in artificial bilayers. Moreover, the molecular dynamics in an optical trap without fluorescent labeling under live cell conditions was evaluated using Raman spectroscopy.