Optogenetic activation of intracellular antibodies for direct modulation of endogenous proteins

Abstract

Intracellular antibodies have become powerful tools for imaging, modulating and neutralizing endogenous target proteins. Here, we describe an optogenetically activated intracellular antibody (optobody) consisting of split antibody fragments and blue-light inducible heterodimerization domains. We expanded this optobody platform by generating several optobodies from previously developed intracellular antibodies, and demonstrated that photoactivation of gelsolin and beta 2-adrenergic receptor (beta 2AR) optobodies suppressed endogenous gelsolin activity and beta 2AR signaling, respectively.