In vivo the application of optogenetic manipulation in deep tissue is seriously obstructed by the limited penetration depth of visible light that is continually applied to activate a photoactuator. Herein, we designed a versatile upconversion optogenetic nanosystem based on a blue-light-mediated heterodimerization module and rare-earth upconversion nanoparticles (UCNs). The UCNs worked as a nanotransducer to convert external deep-tissue-penetrating near-infrared (NIR) light to local blue light to noninvasively activate photoreceptors for optogenetic manipulation in vivo. In this, we demonstrated that deeply penetrating NIR light could be used to control the apoptotic signaling pathway of cancer cells in both mammalian cells and mice by UCNs. We believe that this interesting NIR-light-responsive upconversion optogenetic nanotechnology has significant application potentials for both basic research and clinical applications in vivo.
Keywords: apoptosis; cancer therapy; near-infrared (NIR) light; optogenetic manipulation; upconversion nanoparticles.