Alizadeh Siamak, Esmaeili Abolghasem, Barar Jaleh, Omidi Yadollah
Department of Cell and Molecular Biology and Microbiology, Faculty of Biological Science and Technology, University of Isfahan, Isfahan, Iran.
Research Center for Pharmaceutical Nanotechnology, Biomedicine Institute, Tabriz University of Medical Sciences, Tabriz, Iran.
Bioimpacts. 2022;12(4):295-299. doi: 10.34172/bi.2021.22179. Epub 2021 Dec 14.
Despite the progress made in the diagnosis and treatment of cancer, it has remained the second cause of death in industrial countries. Cancer is a complex multifaceted disease with unique genomic and proteomic hallmarks. Optogenetics is a biological approach, in which the light-sensitive protein modules in combination with effector proteins that trigger reversibly fundamental cell functions without producing a long-term effect. The technology was first used to address some key issues in neurology. Later on, it was also used for other diseases such as cancer. In the case of cancer, there exist several signaling pathways with key proteins that are involved in the initiation and/or progression of cancer. Such aberrantly expressed proteins and the related signaling pathways need to be carefully investigated in terms of cancer diagnosis and treatment, which can be managed with optogenetic tools. Notably, optogenetics systems offer some advantages compared to the traditional methods, including spatial-temporal control of protein or gene expression, cost-effective and fewer off-target side effects, and reversibility potential. Such noticeable features make this technology a unique drug-free approach for diagnosis and treatment of cancer. It can be used to control tumor cells, which is a favorable technique to investigate the heterogeneous and complex features of cancerous cells. Remarkably, optogenetics approaches can provide us with outstanding tool to extend our understanding of how cells perceive, respond, and behave in meeting with complex signals, particularly in terms of cancer evasion from the anticancer immune system functions.
尽管在癌症的诊断和治疗方面取得了进展，但它仍然是工业化国家的第二大致死原因。癌症是一种复杂的多方面疾病，具有独特的基因组和蛋白质组特征。光遗传学是一种生物学方法，其中光敏感蛋白模块与效应蛋白结合，可可逆地触发基本细胞功能而不产生长期影响。该技术最初用于解决神经学中的一些关键问题。后来，它也被用于其他疾病，如癌症。在癌症方面，存在几种信号通路，其中关键蛋白参与癌症的发生和/或发展。就癌症的诊断和治疗而言，需要仔细研究这种异常表达的蛋白和相关信号通路，而这可以用光遗传学工具来实现。值得注意的是，与传统方法相比，光遗传学系统具有一些优势，包括对蛋白质或基因表达的时空控制、成本效益高、脱靶副作用少以及具有可逆性潜力。这些显著特征使该技术成为一种独特的无药癌症诊断和治疗方法。它可用于控制肿瘤细胞，这是一种研究癌细胞异质性和复杂特征的有利技术。值得注意的是，光遗传学方法可以为我们提供出色的工具，以扩展我们对细胞如何感知、响应和应对复杂信号的理解，特别是在癌症逃避抗癌免疫系统功能方面。
