Improved PeT molecules for optically sensing voltage in neurons

Improved Sensitivity in a Modified Berkeley Red Sensor of Transmembrane Potential

Voltage imaging is an important complement to traditional methods for probing cellular physiology, such as electrode-based patch clamp techniques. Unlike the related Ca2+ imaging, voltage imaging provides a direct visualization of bioelectricity changes. We have been exploring the use of sulfonated silicon rhodamine dyes (Berkeley Red Sensor of Transmembrane potential, BeRST) for voltage imaging. In this study, we explore the effect of converting BeRST to diEt BeRST, by replacing the dimethyl aniline of BeRST with a diethyl aniline group. The new dye, diEt BeRST, has a voltage sensitivity of 40% ΔF/F per 100 mV, a 33% increase compared to the original BeRST dye, which has a sensitivity of 30% ΔF/F per 100 mV. In neurons, the cellular brightness of diEt BeRST is about 20% as bright as that of BeRST, which may be due to the lower solubility of diEt BeRST (300 μM) compared to that of BeRST (800 μM). Despite this lower cellular brightness, diEt BeRST is able to record spontaneous and evoked action potentials from multiple neurons simultaneously and in single trials. Far-red excitation and emission profiles enable diEt BeRST to be used alongside existing fluorescent indicators of cellular physiology, like Ca2+-sensitive Oregon Green BAPTA. In hippocampal neurons, simultaneous voltage and Ca2+ imaging reveals neuronal spiking patterns and frequencies that cannot be resolved with traditional Ca2+ imaging methods. This study represents a first step toward describing the structural features that define voltage sensitivity and brightness in silicon rhodamine-based BeRST indicators.

Towards optical measurements of membrane potential values in Bacillus subtilis using fluorescence lifetime

Membrane potential (MP) changes can provide a simple readout of bacterial functional and metabolic state or stress levels. While several optical methods exist for measuring fast changes in MP in excitable cells, there is a dearth of such methods for absolute and precise measurements of steady-state membrane potentials (MPs) in bacterial cells. Conventional electrode-based methods for the measurement of MP are not suitable for calibrating optical methods in small bacterial cells. While optical measurement based on Nernstian indicators have been successfully used, they do not provide absolute or precise quantification of MP or its changes. We present a novel, calibrated MP recording approach to address this gap. In this study, we used a fluorescence lifetime-based approach to obtain a single-cell resolved distribution of the membrane potential and its changes upon extracellular chemical perturbation in a population of bacterial cells for the first time. Our method is based on (i) a unique VoltageFluor (VF) optical transducer, whose fluorescence lifetime varies as a function of MP via photoinduced electron transfer (PeT) and (ii) a quantitative phasor-FLIM analysis for high-throughput readout. This method allows MP changes to be easily visualized, recorded and quantified. By artificially modulating potassium concentration gradients across the membrane using an ionophore, we have obtained a Bacillus subtilis-specific MP versus VF lifetime calibration and estimated the MP for unperturbed B. subtilis cells to be -65 mV and that for chemically depolarized cells as -14 mV. We observed a population level MP heterogeneity of ~6-10 mV indicating a considerable degree of diversity of physiological and metabolic states among individual cells. Our work paves the way for deeper insights into bacterial electrophysiology and bioelectricity research.

High-throughput methods for cardiac cellular electrophysiology studies: the road to personalized medicine

Personalized medicine refers to the tailored application of medical treatment at an individual level, considering the specific genotype or phenotype of each patient for targeted therapy. In the context of cardiovascular diseases, implementing personalized medicine is challenging due to the high costs involved and the slow pace of identifying the pathogenicity of genetic variants, deciphering molecular mechanisms of disease, and testing treatment approaches. Scalable cellular models such as human induced pluripotent stem cell-derived cardiomyocytes (hiPSC-CMs) serve as useful in vitro tools that reflect individual patient genetics and retain clinical phenotypes. High-throughput functional assessment of these constructs is necessary to rapidly assess cardiac pathogenicity and test new therapeutics if personalized medicine is to become a reality. High-throughput photometry recordings of single cells coupled with potentiometric probes offer cost-effective alternatives to traditional patch-clamp assessments of cardiomyocyte action potential characteristics. Importantly, automated patch-clamp (APC) is rapidly emerging in the pharmaceutical industry and academia as a powerful method to assess individual membrane-bound ionic currents and ion channel biophysics over multiple cells in parallel. Now amenable to primary cell and hiPSC-CM measurement, APC represents an exciting leap forward in the characterization of a multitude of molecular mechanisms that underlie clinical cardiac phenotypes. This review provides a summary of state-of-the-art high-throughput electrophysiological techniques to assess cardiac electrophysiology and an overview of recent works that successfully integrate these methods into basic science research that could potentially facilitate future implementation of personalized medicine at a clinical level.

Design and Application of Fluorescent Probes to Detect Cellular Physical Microenvironments

The microenvironment is indispensable for functionality of various biomacromolecules, subcellular compartments, living cells, and organisms. In particular, physical properties within the biological microenvironment could exert profound effects on both the cellular physiology and pathology, with parameters including the polarity, viscosity, pH, and other relevant factors. There is a significant demand to directly visualize and quantitatively measure the fluctuation in the cellular microenvironment with spatiotemporal resolution. To satisfy this need, analytical methods based on fluorescence probes offer great opportunities due to the facile, sensitive, and dynamic detection that these molecules could enable in varying biological settings from in vitro samples to live animal models. Herein, we focus on various types of small molecule fluorescent probes for the detection and measurement of physical parameters of the microenvironment, including pH, polarity, viscosity, mechanical force, temperature, and electron potential. For each parameter, we primarily describe the chemical mechanisms underlying how physical properties are correlated with changes of various fluorescent signals. This review provides both an overview and a perspective for the development of small molecule fluorescent probes to visualize the dynamic changes in the cellular environment, to expand the knowledge for biological process, and to enrich diagnostic tools for human diseases.

Direct regulation of the voltage sensor of HCN channels by membrane lipid compartmentalization

Ion channels function within a membrane environment characterized by dynamic lipid compartmentalization. Limited knowledge exists regarding the response of voltage-gated ion channels to transmembrane potential within distinct membrane compartments. By leveraging fluorescence lifetime imaging microscopy (FLIM) and Förster resonance energy transfer (FRET), we visualized the localization of hyperpolarization-activated cyclic nucleotide-gated (HCN) channels in membrane domains. HCN4 exhibits a greater propensity for incorporation into ordered lipid domains compared to HCN1. To investigate the conformational changes of the S4 helix voltage sensor of HCN channels, we used dual stop-codon suppression to incorporate different noncanonical amino acids, orthogonal click chemistry for site-specific fluorescence labeling, and transition metal FLIM-FRET. Remarkably, altered FRET levels were observed between VSD sites within HCN channels upon disruption of membrane domains. We propose that the voltage-sensor rearrangements, directly influenced by membrane lipid domains, can explain the heightened activity of pacemaker HCN channels when localized in cholesterol-poor, disordered lipid domains, leading to membrane hyperexcitability and diseases.

A red-emitting carborhodamine for monitoring and measuring membrane potential

Biological membrane potentials, or voltages, are a central facet of cellular life. Optical methods to visualize cellular membrane voltages with fluorescent indicators are an attractive complement to traditional electrode-based approaches, since imaging methods can be high throughput, less invasive, and provide more spatial resolution than electrodes. Recently developed fluorescent indicators for voltage largely report changes in membrane voltage by monitoring voltage-dependent fluctuations in fluorescence intensity. However, it would be useful to be able to not only monitor changes, but also measure values of membrane potentials. This study discloses a new fluorescent indicator which can address both. We describe the synthesis of a new sulfonated tetramethyl carborhodamine fluorophore. When this carborhodamine is conjugated with an electron-rich, methoxy (-OMe) containing phenylenevinylene molecular wire, the resulting molecule, CRhOMe, is a voltage-sensitive fluorophore with red/far-red fluorescence. Using CRhOMe, changes in cellular membrane potential can be read out using fluorescence intensity or lifetime. In fluorescence intensity mode, CRhOMe tracks fast-spiking neuronal action potentials with greater signal-to-noise than state-of-the-art BeRST (another voltage-sensitive fluorophore). CRhOMe can also measure values of membrane potential. The fluorescence lifetime of CRhOMe follows a single exponential decay, substantially improving the quantification of membrane potential values using fluorescence lifetime imaging microscopy (FLIM). The combination of red-shifted excitation and emission, mono-exponential decay, and high voltage sensitivity enable fast FLIM recording of action potentials in cardiomyocytes. The ability to both monitor and measure membrane potentials with red light using CRhOMe makes it an important approach for studying biological voltages.

Fluorescence Imaging of Cell Membrane Potential: From Relative Changes to Absolute Values

Membrane potential is a fundamental property of biological cells. Changes in membrane potential characterize a vast number of vital biological processes, such as the activity of neurons and cardiomyocytes, tumorogenesis, cell-cycle progression, etc. A common strategy to record membrane potential changes that occur in the process of interest is to utilize organic dyes or genetically-encoded voltage indicators with voltage-dependent fluorescence. Sensors are introduced into target cells, and alterations of fluorescence intensity are recorded with optical methods. Techniques that allow recording relative changes of membrane potential and do not take into account fluorescence alterations due to factors other than membrane voltage are already widely used in modern biological and biomedical studies. Such techniques have been reviewed previously in many works. However, in order to investigate a number of processes, especially long-term processes, the measured signal must be corrected to exclude the contribution from voltage-independent factors or even absolute values of cell membrane potential have to be evaluated. Techniques that enable such measurements are the subject of this review.

A Promising Method for the Determination of Cell Viability: The Membrane Potential Cell Viability Assay

Determining the viability of cells is fraught with many uncertainties. It is often difficult to determine whether a cell is still alive, approaching the point of no return, or dead. Today, there are many methods for determining cell viability. Most rely on an indirect determination of cell death (metabolism, molecular transport, and leakage, to name a few). In contrast, we have developed a promising novel method for a “direct” determination of cell viability. The potential method assesses cell membrane integrity (which is essential for all viable cells) by measuring the electrical potential of the cell membrane. To test the assay, we chose two different cell types, blood macrophages (TLT) and breast cancer epithelial cells (MCF 7). We exposed them to seven different toxic scenarios (arsenic (V), UV light, hydrogen peroxide, nutrient starvation, Tetrabromobisphenol A, fatty acids, and 5-fluorouracil) to induce different cell death pathways. Under controlled test conditions, the assay showed good accuracy when comparing the toxicity assessment with well-established methods. Moreover, the method showed compatibility with live cell imaging. Although we know that further studies are needed to confirm the performance of the assay in other situations, the results obtained are promising for their wider application in the future.

Flipping the Switch: Reverse-Demand Voltage-Sensitive Fluorophores

Fluorescence microscopy with fluorescent reporters that respond to environmental cues is a powerful method for interrogating biochemistry and biophysics in living systems. Photoinduced electron transfer (PeT) is commonly used as a trigger to modulate fluorescence in response to changes in the biological environment. PeT-based indicators rely on PeT either into the excited state (acceptor PeT) or out of the excited state (donor PeT). Our group has been developing voltage-sensitive fluorophores (VF dyes) that respond to changes in biological membrane potential (V_m). We hypothesize that the mechanism of voltage sensitivity arises from acceptor PeT (a-PeT) from an electron-rich aniline-containing molecular wire into the excited-state fluorophore, resulting in decreased fluorescence at negative V_m. In this work, we reversed the direction of electron flow to access donor-excited PeT (d-PeT) VF dyes by introducing electron-withdrawing rather than electron-rich molecular wires. VF dyes containing electron-withdrawing groups show voltage-sensitive fluorescence, but with the opposite polarity: hyperpolarizing V_m now gives fluorescence increases. We used a combination of computation and experiment to design and synthesize five d-PeT VF targets, two of which are voltage-sensitive.

Electrically Controlling and Optically Observing the Membrane Potential of Supported Lipid Bilayers

Supported lipid bilayers are a well-developed model system for the study of membranes and their associated proteins, such as membrane channels, enzymes, and receptors. These versatile model membranes can be made from various components, ranging from simple synthetic phospholipids to complex mixtures of constituents, mimicking the cell membrane with its relevant physiochemical and molecular phenomena. In addition, the high stability of supported lipid bilayers allows for their study via a wide array of experimental probes. In this work, we describe a platform for supported lipid bilayers that is accessible both electrically and optically, and demonstrate direct optical observation of the transmembrane potential of supported lipid bilayers. We show that the polarization of the supported membrane can be electrically controlled and optically probed using voltage-sensitive dyes. Membrane polarization dynamics is understood through electrochemical impedance spectroscopy and the analysis of an equivalent electrical circuit model. In addition, we describe the effect of the conducting electrode layer on the fluorescence of the optical probe through metal-induced energy transfer, and show that while this energy transfer has an adverse effect on the voltage sensitivity of the fluorescent probe, its strong distance dependency allows for axial localization of fluorescent emitters with ultrahigh accuracy. We conclude with a discussion on possible applications of this platform for the study of voltage-dependent membrane proteins and other processes in membrane biology and surface science.

Chemical Targeting of Rhodol Voltage-Sensitive Dyes to Dopaminergic Neurons

Optical imaging of changes in the membrane potential of living cells can be achieved by means of fluorescent voltage-sensitive dyes (VSDs). A particularly challenging task is to efficiently deliver these highly lipophilic probes to specific neuronal subpopulations in brain tissue. We have tackled this task by designing a solubilizing, hydrophilic polymer platform that carries a high-affinity ligand for a membrane protein marker of interest and a fluorescent VSD. Here, we disclose an improved design of polymer-supported probes for chemical, nongenetic targeting of voltage sensors to axons natively expressing the dopamine transporter in ex vivo mouse brain tissue. We first show that for negatively charged rhodol VSDs functioning on the photoinduced electron transfer principle, poly(ethylene glycol) as a carrier enables targeting with higher selectivity than the polysaccharide dextran in HEK cell culture. In the same experimental setting, we also demonstrate that incorporation of an azetidine ring into the rhodol chromophore substantially increases the brightness and voltage sensitivity of the respective VSD. We show that the superior properties of the optimized sensor are transferable to recording of electrically evoked activity from dopaminergic axons in mouse striatal slices after averaging of multiple trials. Finally, we suggest the next milestones for the field to achieve single-scan recordings with nongenetically targeted VSDs in native brain tissue.

A silicon-rhodamine chemical-genetic hybrid for far red voltage imaging from defined neurons in brain slice

We describe the design, synthesis, and application of voltage-sensitive silicon rhodamines. Based on the Berkeley Red Sensor of Transmembrane potential, or BeRST, scaffold, the new dyes possess an isomeric molecular wire for improved alignment in the plasma membrane and 2′ carboxylic acids for ready functionalization. The new isoBeRST dyes have a voltage sensitivity of 24% ΔF/F per 100 mV. Combined with a flexible polyethyleneglycol (PEG) linker and a chloroalkane HaloTag ligand, isoBeRST dyes enable voltage imaging from genetically defined cells and neurons and provide improved labeling over previous, rhodamine-based hybrid strategies. isoBeRST-Halo hybrid indicators achieve single-trial voltage imaging of membrane potential dynamics from cultured hippocampal neurons or cortical neurons in brain slices. With far-red/near infrared excitation and emission, turn-on response to action potentials, and effective cell labeling in thick tissue, the new isoBeRST-Halo derivatives provide an important complement to voltage imaging in neurobiology.

Small-molecule enzyme hybrids pair a far-red voltage-sensitive fluorophore with a cell-surface expressed HaloTag enzyme via a flexible linker to enable voltage imaging from genetically defined neurons in culture and brain slice.

Voltage Imaging in Drosophila Using a Hybrid Chemical-Genetic Rhodamine Voltage Reporter

We combine a chemically-synthesized, voltage-sensitive fluorophore with a genetically encoded, self-labeling enzyme to enable voltage imaging in Drosophila melanogaster. Previously, we showed that a rhodamine voltage reporter (RhoVR) combined with the HaloTag self-labeling enzyme could be used to monitor membrane potential changes from mammalian neurons in culture and brain slice. Here, we apply this hybrid RhoVR-Halo approach in vivo to achieve selective neuron labeling in intact fly brains. We generate a Drosophila UAS-HaloTag reporter line in which the HaloTag enzyme is expressed on the surface of cells. We validate the voltage sensitivity of this new construct in cell culture before driving expression of HaloTag in specific brain neurons in flies. We show that selective labeling of synapses, cells, and brain regions can be achieved with RhoVR-Halo in either larval neuromuscular junction (NMJ) or in whole adult brains. Finally, we validate the voltage sensitivity of RhoVR-Halo in fly tissue via dual-electrode/imaging at the NMJ, show the efficacy of this approach for measuring synaptic excitatory post-synaptic potentials (EPSPs) in muscle cells, and perform voltage imaging of carbachol-evoked depolarization and osmolarity-evoked hyperpolarization in projection neurons and in interoceptive subesophageal zone neurons in fly brain explants following in vivo labeling. We envision the turn-on response to depolarizations, fast response kinetics, and two-photon compatibility of chemical indicators, coupled with the cellular and synaptic specificity of genetically-encoded enzymes, will make RhoVR-Halo a powerful complement to neurobiological imaging in Drosophila.

Optimization of Near-Infrared Fluorescence Voltage-Sensitive Dye Imaging for Neuronal Activity Monitoring in the Rodent Brain

Many currently employed clinical brain functional imaging technologies rely on indirect measures of activity such as hemodynamics resulting in low temporal and spatial resolutions. To improve upon this, optical systems were developed in conjunction with methods to deliver near-IR voltage-sensitive dye (VSD) to provide activity-dependent optical contrast to establish a clinical tool to facilitate direct monitoring of neuron depolarization through the intact skull. Following the previously developed VSD delivery protocol through the blood-brain barrier, IR-780 perchlorate VSD concentrations in the brain were varied and stimulus-evoked responses were observed. In this paper, a range of optimal VSD tissue concentrations was established that maximized fluorescence fractional change for detection of membrane potential responses to external stimuli through a series of phantom, in vitro, ex vivo, and in vivo experiments in mouse models.

Bringing together the best of chemistry and biology: hybrid indicators for imaging neuronal membrane potential

Membrane potential is an indispensable biophysical signal in neurobiology. Imaging neuronal electrical signals with fluorescent indicators allows for non-invasive recording at high spatial resolution. Over the past decades, both genetically encoded voltage indicators (GEVIs) and organic voltage sensing dyes (OVSDs) have been developed to achieve imaging membrane potential dynamics in cultured neurons and in vivo. More recently, hybrid voltage indicators have gained increasing attention due to their superior fluorescent quantum yield and photostability as compared to conventional GEVIs. In this mini-review, we summarize the design, characterization and biological applications of hybrid voltage indicators, and discuss future improvements.

Optical Estimation of Absolute Membrane Potential Using One- and Two-Photon Fluorescence Lifetime Imaging Microscopy

Background: Membrane potential (V _mem) exerts physiological influence across a wide range of time and space scales. To study V _mem in these diverse contexts, it is essential to accurately record absolute values of V _mem, rather than solely relative measurements. Materials and Methods: We use fluorescence lifetime imaging of a small molecule voltage sensitive dye (VF2.1.Cl) to estimate mV values of absolute membrane potential. Results: We test the consistency of VF2.1.Cl lifetime measurements performed on different single-photon counting instruments and find that they are in striking agreement (differences of <0.5 ps/mV in the slope and <50 ps in the y-intercept). We also demonstrate that VF2.1.Cl lifetime reports absolute V _mem under two-photon (2P) illumination with better than 20 mV of V _mem resolution, a nearly 10-fold improvement over other lifetime-based methods. Conclusions: We demonstrate that VF-FLIM is a robust and portable metric for V _mem across imaging platforms and under both one-photon and 2P illumination. This work is a critical foundation for application of VF-FLIM to record absolute membrane potential signals in thick tissue.

Vinyl-Fluorene Molecular Wires for Voltage Imaging with Enhanced Sensitivity and Reduced Phototoxicity

Fluorescent voltage indicators are an attractive alternative for studying the electrical activity of excitable cells; however, the development of indicators that are both highly sensitive and low in toxicity over long-term experiments remains a challenge. Previously, we reported a fluorene-based voltage-sensitive fluorophore that exhibits much lower phototoxicity than previous voltage indicators in cardiomyocyte monolayers, but suffers from low sensitivity to membrane potential changes. Here, we report that the addition of a single vinyl spacer in the fluorene molecular wire scaffold improves the voltage sensitivity 1.5- to 3.5-fold over fluorene-based voltage probes. Furthermore, we demonstrate the improved ability of the new vinyl-fluorene VoltageFluors to monitor action potential kinetics in both mammalian neurons and human-induced pluripotent stem cell-derived cardiomyocytes. Addition of the vinyl spacer between the aniline donor and fluorene monomer results in indicators that are significantly less phototoxic in cardiomyocyte monolayers. These results demonstrate how structural modification to the voltage sensing domain have a large effect on improving the overall properties of molecular wire-based voltage indicators.

Bringing Microbiology to Light: Toward All-Optical Electrophysiology in Bacteria

The observation of neuron-like behavior in bacteria, such as the occurrence of electric spiking and extended bioelectric signaling, points to the role of membrane dynamics in prokaryotes. Electrophysiology of bacteria, however, has been overlooked for long time, due to the difficulties in monitoring bacterial bioelectric phenomena with those probing techniques that are commonly used for eukaryotes. Optical technologies can allow a paradigm shift in the field of electrophysiology of bacteria, as they would permit to elicit and monitor signaling rapidly, remotely, and with high spatiotemporal precision. In this perspective, we discuss about the potentiality of light interrogation methods in microbiology, encouraging the development of all-optical electrophysiology of bacteria.

A dual cardiomyocyte reporter model derived from human pluripotent stem cells

Cardiovascular diseases (CVD) remain the leading cause of death in the USA. Cardiomyocytes (CMs) derived from human pluripotent stem cells (hPSCs) provide a valuable cell source for regenerative therapy, disease modeling, and drug screening. Here, we established a hPSC line integrated with a mCherry fluorescent protein driven by the alpha myosin heavy chain (aMHC) promoter, which could be used to purify CMs based on the aMHC promoter activity in these cells. Combined with a fluorescent voltage indicator, ASAP2f, we achieved a dual reporter CM platform, which enables purification and characterization of CM subtypes and holds great potential for disease modeling and drug discovery of CVD.

Optical Spike Detection and Connectivity Analysis With a Far-Red Voltage-Sensitive Fluorophore Reveals Changes to Network Connectivity in Development and Disease

The ability to optically record dynamics of neuronal membrane potential promises to revolutionize our understanding of neurobiology. In this study, we show that the far-red voltage sensitive fluorophore, Berkeley Red Sensor of Transmembrane potential-1, or BeRST 1, can be used to monitor neuronal membrane potential changes across dozens of neurons at a sampling rate of 500 Hz. Notably, voltage imaging with BeRST 1 can be implemented with affordable, commercially available illumination sources, optics, and detectors. BeRST 1 is well-tolerated in cultures of rat hippocampal neurons and provides exceptional optical recording fidelity, as judged by dual fluorescence imaging and patch-clamp electrophysiology. We developed a semi-automated spike-picking program to reduce user bias when calling action potentials and used this in conjunction with BeRST 1 to develop an optical spike and connectivity analysis (OSCA) for high-throughput dissection of neuronal activity dynamics. The high temporal resolution of BeRST 1 enables dissection of firing rate changes in response to acute, pharmacological interventions with commonly used inhibitors like gabazine and picrotoxin. Over longer periods of time, BeRST 1 also tracks chronic perturbations to neurons exposed to amyloid beta 1-42 (Aβ 1-42), revealing modest changes to spiking frequency but profound changes to overall network connectivity. Finally, we use OSCA to track changes in neuronal connectivity during maturation in culture, providing a functional readout of network assembly. We envision that use of BeRST 1 and OSCA described here will be of use to the broad neuroscience community.

Anatomy and activity patterns in a multifunctional motor neuron and its surrounding circuits

Dorsal Excitor motor neuron DE-3 in the medicinal leech plays three very different dynamical roles in three different behaviors. Without rewiring its anatomical connectivity, how can a motor neuron dynamically switch roles to play appropriate roles in various behaviors? We previously used voltage-sensitive dye imaging to record from DE-3 and most other neurons in the leech segmental ganglion during (fictive) swimming, crawling, and local-bend escape (Tomina and Wagenaar, 2017). Here, we repeated that experiment, then re-imaged the same ganglion using serial blockface electron microscopy and traced DE-3's processes. Further, we traced back the processes of DE-3's presynaptic partners to their respective somata. This allowed us to analyze the relationship between circuit anatomy and the activity patterns it sustains. We found that input synapses important for all the behaviors were widely distributed over DE-3's branches, yet that functional clusters were different during (fictive) swimming vs. crawling.

Permeability-Controllable Potentiometric Fluorescent Probes Enable Visually Discriminating Near-Zero and Normal Situations of Cell Membrane Potential

The permeability-controllable potentiometric fluorescent probes that can visually discriminate near-zero and normal situations of cell membrane potential were reported for the first time. Different from traditional potentiometric probes that utilize fluorescence intensity to reflect membrane potential, CQ12 and CP12 have different localizations under the two situations of cell membrane potential. Thus, the two situations can be point-to-point indicated by two fluorescent images with an obvious difference, avoiding complex operations and calibration of conventional methods.

Quantum Information and Algorithms for Correlated Quantum Matter

Discoveries in quantum materials, which are characterized by the strongly quantum-mechanical nature of electrons and atoms, have revealed exotic properties that arise from correlations. It is the promise of quantum materials for quantum information science superimposed with the potential of new computational quantum algorithms to discover new quantum materials that inspires this Review. We anticipate that quantum materials to be discovered and developed in the next years will transform the areas of quantum information processing including communication, storage, and computing. Simultaneously, efforts toward developing new quantum algorithmic approaches for quantum simulation and advanced calculation methods for many-body quantum systems enable major advances toward functional quantum materials and their deployment. The advent of quantum computing brings new possibilities for eliminating the exponential complexity that has stymied simulation of correlated quantum systems on high-performance classical computers. Here, we review new algorithms and computational approaches to predict and understand the behavior of correlated quantum matter. The strongly interdisciplinary nature of the topics covered necessitates a common language to integrate ideas from these fields. We aim to provide this common language while weaving together fields across electronic structure theory, quantum electrodynamics, algorithm design, and open quantum systems. Our Review is timely in presenting the state-of-the-art in the field toward algorithms with nonexponential complexity for correlated quantum matter with applications in grand-challenge problems. Looking to the future, at the intersection of quantum information science and algorithms for correlated quantum matter, we envision seminal advances in predicting many-body quantum states and describing excitonic quantum matter and large-scale entangled states, a better understanding of high-temperature superconductivity, and quantifying open quantum system dynamics.

Fluorescence lifetime predicts performance of voltage sensitive fluorophores in cardiomyocytes and neurons

Voltage imaging with fluorescent indicators offers a powerful complement to traditional electrode or Ca²⁺-imaging approaches for monitoring electrical activity. Small molecule fluorescent indicators present the unique opportunity for exquisite control over molecular structure, enabling detailed investigations of structure/function relationships. In this paper, we tune the conjugation between aniline donors and aromatic π systems within the context of photoinduced electron transfer (PeT) based voltage indicators. We describe the design and synthesis of four new voltage-sensitive fluorophores (VoltageFluors, or VFs). Three of these dyes have higher relative voltage sensitivities (ΔF/F) than the previously-reported indicator, VF2.1.Cl. We pair these new indicators with existing VFs to construct a library of voltage indicators with varying degrees of conjugation between the aniline nitrogen lone pair and the aromatic π system. Using a combination of steady-state and time-resolved fluorescence spectroscopy, cellular electrophysiology, fluorescence lifetime imaging microscopy (FLIM), and functional imaging in mammalian neurons and human cardiomyocytes, we establish a detailed link between the photophysical properties of VF dyes and their ability to report on membrane potential dynamics with high signal-to-noise. Anilines with intermediate degrees of conjugation to the aromatic π system experience intermediate rates of PeT and possess the highest absolute voltage sensitivities. Measured using FLIM in patch-clamped HEK cells, we find that the absolute voltage sensitivity of fluorescence lifetime (Δτ_fl per mV), coupled with traditional fluorescence intensity-based metrics like ΔF/F and signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), provides a powerful method to both predict and understand indicator performance in cellular systems.

Voltage imaging with fluorescent indicators offers a powerful complement to traditional electrode or Ca²⁺-imaging approaches for monitoring electrical activity.

Aggregation-Induced Emission of Water-Soluble Tetraphenylethene Derivatives at Polarized Liquid|Liquid Interfaces

Aggregation-induced emission (AIE) behavior of water-soluble tetraphenylethene (TPE) derivatives bearing carboxy and sulfo groups was studied at polarized liquid|liquid interfaces. The aggregation behavior of TPE derivatives in solution and at the water|1,2-dichloroethane (DCE) interface was highly dependent on their ionizable functional groups. Spectroelectrochemical analysis elucidated that the TPE derivatives were transferred across the interface accompanied by the adsorption process at the interface. The ion transfer and interfacial AIE features of TPEs responded reversibly to the externally applied potential, indicating no rigid crystalline structure formation in the interfacial region. The red shift measured in intense interfacial emission spectra demonstrated that the carboxylate derivatives formed their J-aggregates specifically at the polarized water|DCE interface, while the aggregation processes with distinguishable emission properties took place in both the interfacial region and organic solution in the sulfonate derivative system. The AIE features were also investigated at a glycerophospholipid-adsorbed interface as a model of the biomembrane surface. The aggregation process of TPE derivatives was significantly modified through the interaction with phospholipid layers which stimulate the interfacial AIE process of tetra-anionic TPEs.

Activity-Based Sensing: A Synthetic Methods Approach for Selective Molecular Imaging and Beyond

Emerging from the origins of supramolecular chemistry and the development of selective chemical receptors that rely on lock-and-key binding, activity-based sensing (ABS)-which utilizes molecular reactivity rather than molecular recognition for analyte detection-has rapidly grown into a distinct field to investigate the production and regulation of chemical species that mediate biological signaling and stress pathways, particularly metal ions and small molecules. Chemical reactions exploit the diverse chemical reactivity of biological species to enable the development of selective and sensitive synthetic methods to decipher their contributions within complex living environments. The broad utility of this reaction-driven approach facilitates application to imaging platforms ranging from fluorescence, luminescence, photoacoustic, magnetic resonance, and positron emission tomography modalities. ABS methods are also being expanded to other fields, such as drug and materials discovery.

Recent progress in optical voltage-sensor technology and applications to cardiac research: from single cells to whole hearts

The first workshop on Novel Optics-based approaches for Cardiac Electrophysiology (NOtiCE) was held in Florence Italy in 2018. Here, we learned how optical approaches have shaped our basic understanding of cardiac electrophysiology and how new technologies and approaches are being developed and validated to advance the field. Several technologies are being developed that may one day allow for new clinical approaches for diagnosing cardiac disorders and possibly intervening to treat human patients. In this review, we discuss several technologies and approaches to optical voltage imaging with voltage-sensitive dyes. We highlight the development and application of fluorinated and long wavelength voltage-sensitive dyes. These optical voltage sensors have now been applied and well validated in several different assays from cultured human stem cell-derived cardiomyocytes to whole hearts in-vivo. Imaging concepts such as dual wavelength ratiometric techniques, which are crucial to maximizing the information from optical sensors by increasing the useful signal and eliminating noise and artifacts, are presented. Finally, novel voltage sensors including photoacoustic voltage-sensitive dyes, their current capabilities and potential advantages, are introduced.

Anionic Conjugated Polyelectrolytes for FRET-based Imaging of Cellular Membrane Potential

We report a Förster resonance energy transfer (FRET)-based imaging ensemble for the visualization of membrane potential in living cells. A water-soluble poly(fluorene-cophenylene) conjugated polyelectrolyte (FsPFc10) serves as a FRET donor to a voltage-sensitive dye acceptor (FluoVolt^™ ). We observe FRET between FsPFc10 and FluoVolt^™ , where the enhancement in FRET-sensitized emission from FluoVolt^™ is measured at various donor/acceptor ratios. At a donor/acceptor ratio of 1, the excitation of FluoVolt^™ in a FRET configuration results in a three-fold enhancement in its fluorescence emission (compared to when it is excited directly). FsPFc10 efficiently labels the plasma membrane of HEK 293T/17 cells and remains resident with minimal cellular internalization for ~ 1.5 h. The successful plasma membrane-associated colabeling of the cells with the FsPFc10-FluoVolt^™ donor-acceptor pair is confirmed by dual-channel confocal imaging. Importantly, cells labeled with FsPFc10 show excellent cellular viability with no adverse effect on cell membrane depolarization. During depolarization of membrane potential, HEK 293T/17 cells labeled with the donor-acceptor FRET pair exhibit a greater fluorescence response in FluoVolt^™ emission relative to when FluoVolt^™ is used as the sole imaging probe. These results demonstrate the conjugated polyelectrolyte to be a new class of membrane labeling fluorophore for use in voltage sensing schemes.

Electrophysiology, Unplugged: Imaging Membrane Potential with Fluorescent Indicators

Membrane potential is a fundamental biophysical property maintained by every cell on earth. In specialized cells like neurons, rapid changes in membrane potential drive the release of chemical neurotransmitters. Coordinated, rapid changes in neuronal membrane potential across large numbers of interconnected neurons form the basis for all of human cognition, sensory perception, and memory. Despite the importance of this highly orchestrated and distributed activity, the traditional method for recording membrane potential is through the use of highly invasive single-cell electrodes that offer only a small glimpse of the total activity within a system. Fluorescent dyes that change their optical properties in response to changes in biological voltage have the potential to provide a powerful complement to traditional electrode-based methods of inquiry. Voltage-sensitive fluorescent indicators would allow the direct observation of membrane potential changes, significantly expanding our ability to monitor membrane potential dynamics in living systems. Toward this end, we have initiated a program to design, synthesize, and apply voltage-sensitive fluorophores that report on membrane potential dynamics with high sensitivity and speed. The basis for this optical voltage sensing is membrane potential-dependent photoinduced electron transfer (PeT). Voltage-sensitive fluorophores, or VoltageFluors, possess a fluorophore, a conjugated molecular wire, and an aniline donor. At resting potentials, in which the cell has a hyperpolarized or negative potential relative to the outside of the cell, PeT from the aniline donor is enhanced and fluorescence is diminished. At depolarized potentials, the membrane potential decreases the rate of PeT, allowing an increase in fluorescence. We show that a number of different fluorophores, molecular wires, and aniline donors can be employed to generate fast and sensitive VoltageFluor dyes. Multiple lines of evidence point to a PeT-based mechanism for voltage sensing, delivering fast response kinetics (∼25 ns), good sensitivity (>60% ΔF/F), compatibility with two-photon illumination, excellent signal-to-noise, and the ability to detect neuronal and cardiac action potentials in single trials. In this Account, we provide an overview of the challenges facing the design of fluorescent voltage indicators. We trace the development of molecular wire-based fluorescent voltage indicators within our group, beginning from fluorescein-based VoltageFluor to long-wavelength indicators that use modern fluorophores like silicon rhodamine and carbofluorescein. We examine design principles for PeT-based voltage indicators, showcase the use of our recent indicators for two-photon voltage imaging in intact brains, and explore the development of hybrid indicators that can localize to genetically defined cells. Finally, we highlight outstanding challenges to and opportunities for voltage imaging.

Covalently Tethered Rhodamine Voltage Reporters for High Speed Functional Imaging in Brain Tissue

Voltage-sensitive fluorophores enable the direct visualization of membrane potential changes in living systems. To pair the speed and sensitivity of chemically synthesized fluorescent indicators with cell-type specific genetic methods, we here develop Rhodamine-based Voltage Reporters (RhoVR) that can be covalently tethered to genetically encoded, self-labeling enzymes. These chemical-genetic hybrids feature a photoinduced electron transfer triggered RhoVR voltage-sensitive indicator coupled to a chloroalkane HaloTag ligand through a long, water-soluble polyethylene glycol linker (RhoVR-Halo). When applied to cells, RhoVR-Halo dyes selectively and covalently bind to surface-expressed HaloTag enzyme on genetically modified cells. RhoVR-Halo dyes maintain high voltage sensitivities-up to 34% ΔF/F per 100 mV-and fast response times typical of untargeted RhoVRs, while gaining the selectivity of genetically encodable voltage indicators. We show that RhoVR-Halos can record action potentials in single trials from cultured rat hippocampal neurons and can be used in concert with green-fluorescent Ca2+ indicators like GCaMP to provide simultaneous voltage and Ca2+ imaging. In a brain slice, RhoVR-Halos provide exquisite labeling of defined cells and can be imaged using epifluorescence, confocal, or two-photon microscopy. Using high-speed epifluorescence microscopy, RhoVR-Halos provide a read-out of action potentials from labeled cortical neurons in a rat brain slice, without the need for trial averaging. These results demonstrate the potential of hybrid chemical-genetic voltage indicators to combine the optical performance of small-molecule chromophores with the inherent selectivity of genetically encodable systems, permitting imaging modalities inaccessible to either technique individually.

Rhodols - synthesis, photophysical properties and applications as fluorescent probes

The formal replacement of one dialkylamino group in rhodamines with a hydroxyl group transforms them into rhodols. This apparently minor difference is not as small as one may think; rhodamines belong to the cyanine family whereas rhodols belong to merocyanines. Discovered in the late 19th century, rhodols have only very recently begun to gain momentum in the field of advanced fluorescence imaging. This is in part due to the increased understanding of their photophysical properties, and new methods of synthesis. Rationalization of how the nature and arrangement of polar substituents around the core affect the photophysical properties of rhodols is now possible. The emergence of so-called π-expanded and heteroatom-modified rhodols has also allowed their fluorescence to be bathochromically shifted into regions applicable for biological imaging. This review serves to outline applicable synthetic strategies for the synthesis of rhodols, and to highlight important structure-property relationships. In the first part of this Review, various synthetic methods leading to rhodols are presented, followed by structural considerations and an overview of photophysical properties. The second part of this review is entirely devoted to the applications of rhodols as fluorescent reporters in biological imaging.

Optical estimation of absolute membrane potential using fluorescence lifetime imaging

All cells maintain ionic gradients across their plasma membranes, producing transmembrane potentials (V_mem). Mounting evidence suggests a relationship between resting V_mem and the physiology of non-excitable cells with implications in diverse areas, including cancer, cellular differentiation, and body patterning. A lack of non-invasive methods to record absolute V_mem limits our understanding of this fundamental signal. To address this need, we developed a fluorescence lifetime-based approach (VF-FLIM) to visualize and optically quantify V_mem with single-cell resolution in mammalian cell culture. Using VF-FLIM, we report V_mem distributions over thousands of cells, a 100-fold improvement relative to electrophysiological approaches. In human carcinoma cells, we visualize the voltage response to growth factor stimulation, stably recording a 10-15 mV hyperpolarization over minutes. Using pharmacological inhibitors, we identify the source of the hyperpolarization as the Ca²⁺-activated K⁺ channel K_Ca3.1. The ability to optically quantify absolute V_mem with cellular resolution will allow a re-examination of its signaling roles.

A nanoelectrode array for obtaining intracellular recordings from thousands of connected neurons

Current electrophysiological or optical techniques cannot reliably perform simultaneous intracellular recordings from more than a few tens of neurons. Here we report a nanoelectrode array that can simultaneously obtain intracellular recordings from thousands of connected mammalian neurons in vitro. The array consists of 4,096 platinum-black electrodes with nanoscale roughness fabricated on top of a silicon chip that monolithically integrates 4,096 microscale amplifiers, configurable into pseudocurrent-clamp mode (for concurrent current injection and voltage recording) or into pseudovoltage-clamp mode (for concurrent voltage application and current recording). We used the array in pseudovoltage-clamp mode to measure the effects of drugs on ion-channel currents. In pseudocurrent-clamp mode, the array intracellularly recorded action potentials and postsynaptic potentials from thousands of neurons. In addition, we mapped over 300 excitatory and inhibitory synaptic connections from more than 1,700 neurons that were intracellularly recorded for 19 min. This high-throughput intracellular-recording technology could benefit functional connectome mapping, electrophysiological screening and other functional interrogations of neuronal networks.

Genetic voltage indicators

As a "holy grail" of neuroscience, optical imaging of membrane potential could enable high resolution measurements of spiking and synaptic activity in neuronal populations. This has been partly achieved using organic voltage-sensitive dyes in vitro, or in invertebrate preparations yet unspecific staining has prevented single-cell resolution measurements from mammalian preparations in vivo. The development of genetically encoded voltage indicators (GEVIs) and chemogenetic sensors has enabled targeting voltage indicators to plasma membranes and selective neuronal populations. Here, we review recent advances in the design and use of genetic voltage indicators and discuss advantages and disadvantages of three classes of them. Although genetic voltage indicators could revolutionize neuroscience, there are still significant challenges, particularly two-photon performance. To overcome them may require cross-disciplinary collaborations, team effort, and sustained support by large-scale research initiatives.

Two-photon excitation of FluoVolt allows improved interrogation of transmural electrophysiological function in the intact mouse heart

BACKGROUND & AIMS

Two-photon excitation of voltage sensitive dyes (VSDs) can measure rapidly changing electrophysiological signals deep within intact cardiac tissue with improved three-dimensional resolution along with reduced photobleaching and photo-toxicity compared to conventional confocal microscopy. Recently, a category of VSDs has emerged which records membrane potentials by photo-induced electron transfer. FluoVolt is a novel VSD in this category which promises fast response and a 25% fractional change in fluorescence per 100 mV, making it an attractive optical probe for action potential (AP) recordings within intact cardiac tissue. The purpose of this study was to characterize the fluorescent properties of FluoVolt as well as its utility for deep tissue imaging.

METHODS

Discrete tissue layers throughout the left ventricular wall of isolated perfused murine hearts loaded with FluoVolt or di-4-ANEPPS were sequentially excited with two-photon microscopy.

RESULTS

FluoVolt loaded hearts suffered significantly fewer episodes of atrio-ventricular block compared to di-4-ANEPPS loaded hearts, indicating comparatively low toxicity of FluoVolt in the intact heart. APs recorded with FluoVolt were characterized by a lower signal-to-noise ratio and a higher dynamic range compared to APs recorded with di-4-ANEPPS. Although both depolarization and repolarization parameters were similar in APs recorded with either dye, FluoVolt allowed deeper tissue excitation with improved three-dimensional resolution due to reduced out-of-focus fluorescence generation under two-photon excitation.

CONCLUSION

Our results demonstrate several advantages of two-photon excitation of FluoVolt in functional studies in intact heart preparations, including reduced toxicity and improved fluorescent properties.

Synthesis, photophysical and electrochemical properties of pyridine, pyrazine and triazine-based (D-π-)2A fluorescent dyes

The donor-acceptor-π-conjugated (D-π-)₂A fluorescent dyes OUY-2, OUK-2 and OUJ-2 with two (diphenylamino)carbazole thiophene units as D (electron-donating group)-π (π-conjugated bridge) moiety and a pyridine, pyrazine or triazine ring as electron-withdrawing group (electron-accepting group, A) have been designed and synthesized. The photophysical and electrochemical properties of the three dyes were investigated by photoabsorption and fluorescence spectroscopy, Lippert-Mataga plots, cyclic voltammetry and density functional theory calculations. The photoabsorption maximum (λ_max,abs) and the fluorescence maximum (λ_max,fl) for the intramolecular charge-transfer characteristic band of the (D-π-)₂A fluorescent dyes show bathochromic shifts in the order of OUY-2 < OUK-2 < OUJ-2. Moreover, the photoabsorption bands of the (D-π-)₂A fluorescent dyes are nearly independent of solvent polarity, while the fluorescence bands showed bathochromic shifts with increasing solvent polarity (i.e., positive fluorescence solvatochromism). The Lippert-Mataga plots for OUY-2, OUK-2 and OUJ-2 indicate that the Δμ (= μ_e - μ_g) value, which is the difference in the dipole moment of the dye between the excited (μ_e) and the ground (μ_g) states, increases in the order of OUY-2 < OUK-2 < OUJ-2. Therefore, the fact explains our findings that OUJ-2 shows large bathochromic shifts of the fluorescence maxima in polar solvents, as well as the Stokes shift values of OUJ-2 in polar solvents are much larger than those in nonpolar solvents. The cyclic voltammetry of OUY-2, OUK-2 and OUJ-2 demonstrated that there is little difference in the HOMO energy level among the three dyes, but the LUMO energy levels decrease in the order of OUY-2 > OUK-2 > OUJ-2. Consequently, this work reveals that for the (D-π-)₂A fluorescent dyes OUY-2, OUK-2 and OUJ-2 the bathochromic shifts of λ_max,abs and λ_max,fl and the lowering of the LUMO energy level are dependent on the electron-withdrawing ability of the azine ring, which increases in the order of OUY-2 < OUK-2 < OUJ-2.

Interrogating Synaptic Architecture: Approaches for Labeling Organelles and Cytoskeleton Components

Synaptic transmission has been studied for decades, as a fundamental step in brain function. The structure of the synapse, and its changes during activity, turned out to be key aspects not only in the transfer of information between neurons, but also in cognitive processes such as learning and memory. The overall synaptic morphology has traditionally been studied by electron microscopy, which enables the visualization of synaptic structure in great detail. The changes in the organization of easily identified structures, such as the presynaptic active zone, or the postsynaptic density, are optimally studied via electron microscopy. However, few reliable methods are available for labeling individual organelles or protein complexes in electron microscopy. For such targets one typically relies either on combination of electron and fluorescence microscopy, or on super-resolution fluorescence microscopy. This review focuses on approaches and techniques used to specifically reveal synaptic organelles and protein complexes, such as cytoskeletal assemblies. We place the strongest emphasis on methods detecting the targets of interest by affinity binding, and we discuss the advantages and limitations of each method.

BODIPY Fluorophores for Membrane Potential Imaging

Fluorophores based on the BODIPY scaffold are prized for their tunable excitation and emission profiles, mild syntheses, and biological compatibility. Improving the water-solubility of BODIPY dyes remains an outstanding challenge. The development of water-soluble BODIPY dyes usually involves direct modification of the BODIPY fluorophore core with ionizable groups or substitution at the boron center. While these strategies are effective for the generation of water-soluble fluorophores, they are challenging to implement when developing BODIPY-based indicators: direct modification of BODIPY core can disrupt the electronics of the dye, complicating the design of functional indicators; and substitution at the boron center often renders the resultant BODIPY incompatible with the chemical transformations required to generate fluorescent sensors. In this study, we show that BODIPYs bearing a sulfonated aromatic group at the meso position provide a general solution for water-soluble BODIPYs. We outline the route to a suite of 5 new sulfonated BODIPYs with 2,6-disubstitution patterns spanning a range of electron-donating and -withdrawing propensities. To highlight the utility of these new, sulfonated BODIPYs, we further functionalize them to access 13 new, BODIPY-based, voltage-sensitive fluorophores (VF). The most sensitive of these BODIPY VF dyes displays a 48% ΔF/F per 100 mV in mammalian cells. Two additional BODIPY VFs show good voltage sensitivity (≥24% ΔF/F) and excellent brightness in cells. These compounds can report on action potential dynamics in both mammalian neurons and human stem cell-derived cardiomyocytes. Accessing a range of substituents in the context of a water-soluble BODIPY fluorophore provides opportunities to tune the electronic properties of water-soluble BODIPY dyes for functional indicators.

New Molecular Scaffolds for Fluorescent Voltage Indicators

The ability to non-invasively monitor membrane potential dynamics in excitable cells like neurons and cardiomyocytes promises to revolutionize our understanding of the physiology and pathology of the brain and heart. Here, we report the design, synthesis, and application of a new class of fluorescent voltage indicators that make use of a fluorene-based molecular wire as a voltage-sensing domain to provide fast and sensitive measurements of membrane potential in both mammalian neurons and human-derived cardiomyocytes. We show that the best of the new probes, fluorene VoltageFluor 2 (fVF 2), readily reports on action potentials in mammalian neurons, detects perturbations to the cardiac action potential waveform in human induced pluripotent stem cell-derived cardiomyocytes, shows a substantial decrease in phototoxicity compared to existing molecular wire-based indicators, and can monitor cardiac action potentials for extended periods of time. Together, our results demonstrate the generalizability of a molecular wire approach to voltage sensing and highlight the utility of fVF 2 for interrogating membrane potential dynamics.

Kinetic and photonic techniques to study chemotactic signaling in sea urchin sperm

Sperm from sea urchins are attracted by chemical cues released by the egg-a mechanism called chemotaxis. We describe here the signaling pathway and molecular components endowing sperm with single-molecule sensitivity. Chemotactic signaling and behavioral responses occur on a timescale of a few milliseconds to seconds. We describe the techniques and chemical tools used to resolve the signaling events in time. The techniques include rapid-mixing devices, rapid stroboscopic microscopy, and photolysis of caged second messengers and chemoattractants.

Genetically Encoded Voltage Indicators Are Illuminating Subcellular Physiology of the Axon

Everything we see and do is regulated by electrical signals in our nerves and muscle. Ion channels are crucial for sensing and generating electrical signals. Two voltage-dependent conductances, Na+ and K+, form the bedrock of the electrical impulse in the brain known as the action potential. Several classes of mammalian neurons express combinations of nearly 100 different varieties of these two voltage-dependent channels and their subunits. Not surprisingly, this variability orchestrates a diversity of action potential shapes and firing patterns that have been studied in detail at neural somata. A remarkably understudied phenomena exists in subcellular compartments of the axon, where action potentials initiate synaptic transmission. Ion channel research was catalyzed by the invention of glass electrodes to measure electrical signals in cell membranes, however, progress in the field of neurobiology has been stymied by the fact that most axons in the mammalian CNS are far too small and delicate for measuring ion channel function with electrodes. These quantitative measurements of membrane voltage can be achieved within the axon using light. A revolution of optical voltage sensors has enabled exploring important questions of how ion channels regulate axon physiology and synaptic transmission. In this review we will consider advantages and disadvantages of different fluorescent voltage indicators and discuss particularly relevant questions that these indicators can elucidate for understanding the crucial relationship between action potentials and synaptic transmission.

Spying on Neuronal Membrane Potential with Genetically Targetable Voltage Indicators

Methods for optical measurement of voltage dynamics in living cells are attractive because they provide spatial resolution surpassing traditional electrode-based measurements and temporal resolution exceeding that of widely used Ca²⁺ imaging. Chemically synthesized voltage-sensitive dyes that use photoinduced electron transfer as a voltage-sensing trigger offer high voltage sensitivity and fast-response kinetics, but targeting chemical indicators to specific cells remains an outstanding challenge. Here, we present a new family of readily functionalizable, fluorescein-based voltage-sensitive fluorescent dyes (sarcosine-VoltageFluors) that can be covalently attached to a genetically encoded cell surface receptor to achieve voltage imaging from genetically defined neurons. We synthesized four new VoltageFluor derivatives that possess carboxylic acid functionality for simple conjugation to flexible tethers. The best of this new group of dyes was conjugated via a polyethylene glycol (PEG) linker to a small peptide (SpyTag, 13 amino acids) that directs binding and formation of a covalent bond with its binding partner, SpyCatcher (15 kDa). The new VoltageSpy dyes effectively label cells expressing cell-surface SpyCatcher, display good voltage sensitivity, and maintain fast-response kinetics. In cultured neurons, VoltageSpy dyes enable robust, single-trial optical detection of action potentials at neuronal soma with sensitivity exceeding genetically encoded voltage indicators. Importantly, genetic targeting of chemically synthesized dyes enables VoltageSpy to report on action potentials in axons and dendrites in single trials, tens to hundreds of micrometers away from the cell body. Genetic targeting of synthetic voltage indicators with VoltageSpy enables voltage imaging with low nanomolar dye concentration and offers a promising method for allying the speed and sensitivity of synthetic indicators with the enhanced cellular resolution of genetically encoded probes.

In Vivo Two-Photon Voltage Imaging with Sulfonated Rhodamine Dyes

Optical methods that rely on fluorescence for mapping changes in neuronal membrane potential in the brains of awake animals provide a powerful way to interrogate the activity of neurons that underlie neural computations ranging from sensation and perception to learning and memory. To achieve this goal, fluorescent indicators should be bright, highly sensitive to small changes in membrane potential, nontoxic, and excitable with infrared light. We report a new class of fluorescent, voltage-sensitive dyes: sulfonated rhodamine voltage reporters (sRhoVR), synthetic fluorophores with high voltage sensitivity, excellent two-photon performance, and compatibility in intact mouse brains. sRhoVR dyes are based on a tetramethyl rhodamine fluorophore coupled to a phenylenevinylene molecular wire/diethyl aniline voltage-sensitive domain. When applied to cells, sRhoVR dyes localize to the plasma membrane and respond to membrane depolarization with a fluorescence increase. The best of the new dyes, sRhoVR 1, displays a 44% ΔF/F increase in fluorescence per 100 mV change, emits at 570 nm, and possesses excellent two-photon absorption of approximately 200 GM at 840 nm. sRhoVR 1 can detect action potentials in cultured rat hippocampal neurons under both single- and two-photon illumination with sufficient speed and sensitivity to report on action potentials in single trials, without perturbing underlying physiology or membrane properties. The combination of speed, sensitivity, and brightness under two-photon illumination makes sRhoVR 1 a promising candidate for in vivo imaging in intact brains. We show sRhoVR powerfully complements electrode-based modes of neuronal activity recording in the mouse brain by recording neuronal transmembrane potentials from the neuropil of layer 2/3 of the mouse barrel cortex in concert with extracellularly recorded local field potentials (LFPs). sRhoVR imaging reveals robust depolarization in response to whisker stimulation; concurrent electrode recordings reveal negative deflections in the LFP recording, consistent with the canonical thalamocortical response. Importantly, sRhoVR 1 can be applied in mice with chronic optical windows, presaging its utility in dissecting and resolving voltage dynamics using two-photon functional imaging in awake, behaving animals.

Excited-State Spectra of Strongly Correlated Molecules from a Reduced-Density-Matrix Approach

Excited-state energies are computed in the space of single-electron transitions from the ground state from only a knowledge of the two-electron reduced density matrix (2-RDM). Previous work developed and applied the theory to small molecular systems with accurate results, but applications to both larger and more correlated molecules were hindered by ill-conditioning of the effective eigenvalue problem. Here we improve the excited-spectra 2-RDM theory through a stable Hamiltonian-shifted regularization algorithm that removes the near singularities within the computation. The theory with ground-state 2-RDMs from the variational 2-RDM method is applied to the excited energies of strongly correlated molecules including the optical band gap of hydrogen and acene chains, the singlet-triplet splitting of nickel dithiolates, as well as the low-lying excited states of an optical dye. While single-excitation theories like CISD and TD-DFT underestimate band gaps and excited-state splittings, the 2-RDM theory yields band gap and excited-state splittings that are in good agreement with full configuration interaction and experiment where available.

Rapid Voltage Sensing with Single Nanorods via the Quantum Confined Stark Effect

Properly designed colloidal semiconductor quantum dots (QDs) have already been shown to exhibit high sensitivity to external electric fields via the quantum confined Stark effect (QCSE). Yet, detection of the characteristic spectral shifts associated with the effect of the QCSE has traditionally been painstakingly slow, dramatically limiting the sensitivity of these QD sensors to fast transients. We experimentally demonstrate a new detection scheme designed to achieve shot-noise-limited sensitivity to emission wavelength shifts in QDs, showing feasibility for their use as local electric field sensors on the millisecond time scale. This regime of operation is already potentially suitable for detection of single action potentials in neurons at a high spatial resolution.