Optogenetic Manipulation of Transgene Expression in Retinal Neurovasculature.

The retina is prone to developing pathological neovascularization, a leading cause of blindness in humans. Because excess neovascularization does not affect the entire retina, global inhibition treatment of angiogenesis critically interferes with healthy, unaffected retinal tissue. We therefore established an photoactivated gene expression paradigm which would allow light-mediated targeting of antiangiogenic genetic treatment only to affected retinal regions.

Triplet-Triplet Annihilation Upconversion-Based Photolysis: Applications in Photopharmacology.

The emerging field of photopharmacology is a promising chemobiological methodology for optical control of drug activities that could ultimately solve the off-target toxicity outside the disease location of many drugs for the treatment of a given pathology. The use of photolytic reactions looks very attractive for a light-activated drug release but requires to develop photolytic reactions sensitive to red or near-infrared light excitation for better tissue penetration. This review will present the concepts of triplet-triplet annihilation upconversion-based photolysis and their recent in vivo applications for light-induced drug delivery using photoactivatable nanoparticles.

Photoactivatable Liposomes for Blue to Deep Red Light-Activated Surface Drug Release: Application to Controlled Delivery of the Antitumoral Drug Melphalan.

Liposome-based nanoparticles able to release, via a photolytic reaction, a payload anchored at the surface of the phospholipid bilayer were prepared. The liposome formulation strategy uses an original drug-conjugated blue light-sensitive photoactivatable coumarinyl linker. This is based on an efficient blue light-sensitive photolabile protecting group modified by a lipid anchor, which enables its incorporation into liposomes, leading to blue to green light-sensitive nanoparticles.