AUTHOR=Pang Keliang , You He , Chen Yanbo , Chu Pengcheng , Hu Meiqin , Shen Jianying , Guo Wei , Xie Can , Lu Bai TITLE=MagR Alone Is Insufficient to Confer Cellular Calcium Responses to Magnetic Stimulation JOURNAL=Frontiers in Neural Circuits VOLUME=11 YEAR=2017 URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/neural-circuits/articles/10.3389/fncir.2017.00011 DOI=10.3389/fncir.2017.00011 ISSN=1662-5110 ABSTRACT=

Magnetic manipulation of cell activity offers advantages over optical manipulation but an ideal tool remains elusive. The MagR protein was found through its interaction with cryptochrome (Cry) and the protein in solution appeared to respond to magnetic stimulation (MS). After we initiated an investigation on the specific role of MagR in cellular response to MS, a subsequent study claimed that MagR expression alone could achieve cellular activation by MS. Here we report that despite systematically testing different ways of measuring intracellular calcium and different MS protocols, it was not possible to detect any cellular or neuronal responses to MS in MagR-expressing HEK cells or primary neurons from the dorsal root ganglion and the hippocampus. By contrast, in neurons co-expressing MagR and channelrhodopin, optical but not MS increased calcium influx in hippocampal neurons. Our results indicate that MagR alone is not sufficient to confer cellular magnetic responses.