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Updated: Aug 5, 2025

Tracking Drug-induced Changes in Receptor Post-internalization Trafficking by Colocalizational Analysis
Published on: July 3, 2015
In vivo photopharmacology with a caged mu opioid receptor agonist drives rapid changes in behavior
Xiang Ma1, Desiree A Johnson1, Xinyi Jenny He1
1Department of Neurobiology, School of Biological Sciences, University of California San Diego, La Jolla, CA, USA.
Abstract:
Photoactivatable drugs and peptides can drive quantitative studies into receptor signaling with high spatiotemporal precision, yet few are compatible with behavioral studies in mammals. We developed CNV-Y-DAMGO-a caged derivative of the mu opioid receptor-selective peptide agonist DAMGO. Photoactivation in the mouse ventral tegmental area produced an opioid-dependent increase in locomotion within seconds of illumination. These results demonstrate the power of in vivo photopharmacology for dynamic studies into animal behavior.
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