Photoactivatable pharmacological agents have revolutionized neuroscience, but the palette of available compounds is limited. We describe a general method for caging tertiary amines by using a stable quaternary ammonium linkage that elicits a red shift in the activation wavelength. We prepared a photoactivatable nicotine (PA-Nic), uncageable via one- or two-photon excitation, that is useful to study nicotinic acetylcholine receptors (nAChRs) in different experimental preparations and spatiotemporal scales.

中文翻译：

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用于烟碱光药理学的光激活药物

光活化药物已经彻底改变了神经科学，但可用化合物的范围有限。我们描述了一种通过使用稳定的季铵键来封闭叔胺的通用方法，该键会引起激活波长的红移。我们制备了一种光活化尼古丁（PA-Nic），通过一个或两个光子激发无法控制，这对于在不同的实验准备和时空尺度上研究烟碱乙酰胆碱受体（nAChR）很有用。