{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,10,1]],"date-time":"2026-10-01T02:25:25Z","timestamp":1790821525672,"version":"4.1.0"},"reference-count":45,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"17","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2021,9,4]],"date-time":"2021-09-04T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1630713600000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"DOI":"10.13039\/501100006769","name":"Russian Science Foundation","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","award":["20-65-46004 (OLV)"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["20-65-46004 (OLV)"]}],"id":[{"id":"10.13039\/501100006769","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"publisher"}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["IJMS"],"abstract":"<jats:p>Optogenetics approach is used widely in neurobiology as it allows control of cellular activity with high spatial and temporal resolution. In most studies, optogenetics is used to control neuronal activity. In the present study optogenetics was used to stimulate astrocytes with the aim to modulate neuronal activity. To achieve this goal, light stimulation was applied to astrocytes expressing a version of ChR2 (ionotropic opsin) or Opto-\u03b11AR (metabotropic opsin). Optimal optogenetic stimulation parameters were determined using patch-clamp recordings of hippocampal pyramidal neurons\u2019 spontaneous activity in brain slices as a readout. It was determined that the greatest increase in the number of spontaneous synaptic currents was observed when astrocytes expressing ChR2(H134R) were activated by 5 s of continuous light. For the astrocytes expressing Opto-\u03b11AR, the greatest response was observed in the pulse stimulation mode (T = 1 s, t = 100 ms). It was also observed that activation of the astrocytic Opto-a1AR but not ChR2 results in an increase of the fEPSP slope in hippocampal neurons. Based on these results, we concluded that Opto-a1AR expressed in hippocampal astrocytes provides an opportunity to modulate the long-term synaptic plasticity optogenetically, and may potentially be used to normalize the synaptic transmission and plasticity defects in a variety of neuropathological conditions, including models of Alzheimer\u2019s disease and other neurodegenerative disorders.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/ijms22179613","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2021,9,6]],"date-time":"2021-09-06T13:15:56Z","timestamp":1630934156000},"page":"9613","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":32,"title":["Optogenetic Activation of Astrocytes\u2014Effects on Neuronal Network Function"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"22","author":[{"given":"Evgenii","family":"Gerasimov","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Laboratory of Molecular Neurodegeneration, Peter the Great St. Petersburg Polytechnic University, Khlopina St. 11, 194021 St. Petersburg, Russia"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Alexander","family":"Erofeev","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Laboratory of Molecular Neurodegeneration, Peter the Great St. Petersburg Polytechnic University, Khlopina St. 11, 194021 St. Petersburg, Russia"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Anastasia","family":"Borodinova","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Cellular Neurobiology of Learning Lab, Institute of Higher Nervous Activity and Neurophysiology of the Russian Academy of Science, Butlerova St. 5A, 117485 Moscow, Russia"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Anastasia","family":"Bolshakova","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Laboratory of Molecular Neurodegeneration, Peter the Great St. Petersburg Polytechnic University, Khlopina St. 11, 194021 St. Petersburg, Russia"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-9248-8207","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Pavel","family":"Balaban","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Cellular Neurobiology of Learning Lab, Institute of Higher Nervous Activity and Neurophysiology of the Russian Academy of Science, Butlerova St. 5A, 117485 Moscow, Russia"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-7006-6951","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Ilya","family":"Bezprozvanny","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Laboratory of Molecular Neurodegeneration, Peter the Great St. Petersburg Polytechnic University, Khlopina St. 11, 194021 St. Petersburg, Russia"},{"name":"Department of Physiology, UT Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas, Dallas, TX 75390, USA"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-9590-703X","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Olga L.","family":"Vlasova","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Laboratory of Molecular Neurodegeneration, Peter the Great St. Petersburg Polytechnic University, Khlopina St. 11, 194021 St. Petersburg, Russia"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2021,9,4]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"346","DOI":"10.1016\/j.conb.2004.05.007","article-title":"Glutamate transporters bring competition to the synapse","volume":"14","author":"Huang","year":"2004","journal-title":"Curr. 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