title: Semiconducting polymers are light nanotransducers in eyeless animals.
abstract: Current implant technology uses electrical signals at the electrode-neural interface. This rather invasive approach presents important issues in terms of performance, tolerability, and overall safety of the implants. Inducing light sensitivity in living organisms is an alternative method that provides groundbreaking opportunities in neuroscience. Optogenetics is a spectacular demonstration of this, yet is limited by the viral transfection of exogenous genetic material. We propose a nongenetic approach toward light control of biological functions in living animals. We show that nanoparticles based on poly(3-hexylthiophene) can be internalized in eyeless freshwater polyps and are fully biocompatible. Under light, the nanoparticles modify the light response of the animals, at two different levels: (i) they enhance the contraction events of the animal body, and (ii) they change the transcriptional activation of theopsin3-likegene. This suggests the establishment of a seamless and biomimetic interface between the living organism and the polymer nanoparticles that behave as light nanotransducers, coping with or amplifying the function of primitive photoreceptors.
authors.affiliation: Istituto di Scienze Applicate e Sistemi Intelligenti "Eduardo Caianiello," Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche, Via Campi Flegrei 34, 80078 Pozzuoli, Italy.
authors.forename: Claudia
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Tortiglione
authors.affiliation: Center for Nano Science and Technology @PoliMi, Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia, Via Pascoli 70/3, 20133 Milano, Italy.
authors.forename: Maria Rosa
authors.initials: MR
authors.lastname: Antognazza
authors.affiliation: Istituto di Scienze Applicate e Sistemi Intelligenti "Eduardo Caianiello," Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche, Via Campi Flegrei 34, 80078 Pozzuoli, Italy.
authors.forename: Angela
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Tino
authors.affiliation: Center for Nano Science and Technology @PoliMi, Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia, Via Pascoli 70/3, 20133 Milano, Italy.
authors.forename: Caterina
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Bossio
authors.affiliation: Istituto di Scienze Applicate e Sistemi Intelligenti "Eduardo Caianiello," Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche, Via Campi Flegrei 34, 80078 Pozzuoli, Italy.
authors.forename: Valentina
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Marchesano
authors.affiliation: Istituto di Scienze Applicate e Sistemi Intelligenti "Eduardo Caianiello," Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche, Via Campi Flegrei 34, 80078 Pozzuoli, Italy.
authors.forename: Antonella
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Bauduin
authors.affiliation: Istituto per la Sintesi Organica e la Fotoreattività, Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche, Via P. Gobetti 101, 40129 Bologna, Italy.
authors.forename: Mattia
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Zangoli
authors.affiliation: Center for Nano Science and Technology @PoliMi, Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia, Via Pascoli 70/3, 20133 Milano, Italy.
authors.forename: Susana Vaquero
authors.initials: SV
authors.lastname: Morata
authors.affiliation: Center for Nano Science and Technology @PoliMi, Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia, Via Pascoli 70/3, 20133 Milano, Italy.; Department of Physics, Politecnico di Milano, Piazza Leonardo da Vinci 32, 20133 Milano, Italy.
authors.forename: Guglielmo
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Lanzani
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001522:Behavior, Animal; D040761:Biomimetic Materials; D006829:Hydra / Q000502:physiology*; D008027:Light; D049329:Nanostructures; D062308:Optogenetics; D012666:Semiconductors
keywords: Photophysics; bio interfaces; bio photonics; polymer nanoparticles