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Multiphoton Absorption Spectra of Channelrhodopsin-2 via Multiscale Simulation Methods
KTH, School of Engineering Sciences in Chemistry, Biotechnology and Health (CBH), Chemistry, Theoretical Chemistry and Biology.ORCID iD: 0000-0003-1588-338X
KTH, School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science (EECS), Centres, Centre for High Performance Computing, PDC.ORCID iD: 0000-0002-9720-5429
KTH, School of Engineering Sciences in Chemistry, Biotechnology and Health (CBH), Chemistry, Theoretical Chemistry and Biology.ORCID iD: 0000-0002-1191-4954
DTU Chemistry, Technical University of Denmark, Kgs.Lyngby, DK-2800, Denmark.
2026 (English)In: Journal of Chemical Theory and Computation, ISSN 1549-9618, E-ISSN 1549-9626, Vol. 22, no 2, p. 1133-1148Article in journal (Refereed) Published
Abstract [en]

Channelrhodopsin-2 (ChR2) is a light-gated ion channel widely used in optogenetics, a technique that enables precise control of neuronal activity by genetically engineering light-sensitive proteins into cell membranes. This protein exists in dimeric form, with each monomer containing a retinal Schiff base (RSB) moiety covalently bonded that undergoes trans-cis isomerization upon light absorption. However, the limited penetration depth of visible light in biological tissues motivates the use of multiphoton-absorption techniques, which enhance tissue penetration, improve focality, and reduce phototoxicity, thereby offering a promising alternative for optogenetic applications. In this paper, we present a fully atomistic multiscale methodology for computing the one-, two-, and three-photon absorption spectra of ChR2, where the protein, lipid bilayer, and solvent are explicitly considered throughout the workflow. This methodology integrates classical molecular mechanics (MM) molecular dynamics (MD), quantum mechanics/molecular mechanics (QM/MM)-MD, and fragment-based polarizable embedding (PE) to derive environment-specific PE potentials from the explicit protein-lipid-solvent environment. The final step in the methodology is to use these potentials to compute accurate spectra via PE-time-dependent density functional theory (PE-TD-DFT). Validation against experimental one-photon absorption spectra demonstrates excellent agreement. For the first time, we report the theoretical two- and three-photon absorption in ChR2, albeit without direct experimental comparison. We compare the multiphoton absorption (MPA) spectra where the two RSB moieties are sampled using classical MD and QM/MM-MD, respectively. The resulting spectral differences are attributed to variations in key structural parameters that we analyze and document.

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
American Chemical Society (ACS) , 2026. Vol. 22, no 2, p. 1133-1148
National Category
Chemical Sciences
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:kth:diva-376978DOI: 10.1021/acs.jctc.5c01719ISI: 001655284600001PubMedID: 41493419Scopus ID: 2-s2.0-105028739985OAI: oai:DiVA.org:kth-376978DiVA, id: diva2:2040899
Note

QC 20260223

Available from: 2026-02-23 Created: 2026-02-23 Last updated: 2026-02-23Bibliographically approved

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Carrasco Busturia, DavidLinares, MathieuNorman, Patrick

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