title: Illuminating Cell Signaling with Near-Infrared Light-Responsive Nanomaterials.
abstract: The regulation of cellular signaling in vivo has been a challenging task owing to the lack of effective methods for tunable control of the amplitude, location, and duration of cell-signaling events at a deep-tissue level. In this issue of ACS Nano, an intriguing paper by Ambrosone et al. demonstrates that deep-tissue-penetrating near-infrared (NIR) light can be used to control the Wnt/β-catenin-signaling pathway in a single-cell organism (Hydra) by utilizing microcapsules that contain plasmonic gold nanoparticles. In parallel, in recent work, we proposed upconversion nanoparticles (UCNPs) as NIR-light-activatable "wireless" optogenetic tools, and we showed their ability to modulate cell signaling pathways in both mammalian cells and mice. We believe that these interesting NIR-light-responsive nanotechnologies will open new avenues for both basic research and clinical applications.
authors.affiliation: Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Pharmacology, University of Massachusetts Medical School, Worcester, Massachusetts 01605, United States.
authors.forename: Yuanwei
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Pharmacology, University of Massachusetts Medical School, Worcester, Massachusetts 01605, United States.
authors.forename: Ling
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Huang
authors.affiliation: Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Pharmacology, University of Massachusetts Medical School, Worcester, Massachusetts 01605, United States.
authors.forename: Zhanjun
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: Institute of Biosciences and Technology, Texas A&M University Health Science Center, Houston, Texas 77030, United States.
authors.forename: Guolin
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Ma
authors.affiliation: Institute of Biosciences and Technology, Texas A&M University Health Science Center, Houston, Texas 77030, United States.
authors.forename: Yubin
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Zhou
authors.affiliation: Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Pharmacology, University of Massachusetts Medical School, Worcester, Massachusetts 01605, United States.
authors.forename: Gang
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Han
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D007259:Infrared Rays; D051379:Mice; D053758:Nanoparticles; D049329:Nanostructures; D062308:Optogenetics; D051176:beta Catenin
chemical_list: D051176:beta Catenin