Organic Electrochemical Neurons in Venus Flytraps

There are many applications for electrophysiology, especially within the realm of healthcare and neuroscience. Some examples include biosensors to monitor the activity of our hearts, brains, and neuroprosthetics. However, there have been a lot of difficulties in the usage of artificial neuromorphic technology due to poor compatibility with biological systems, the complexity of circuits, poor efficiency, and operational differences from ionic signal modulation. 

This is where organic electrochemical neurons (OECNs) come in. OECNs share many structural similarities with biomolecules, making them ideal for electrophysiological applications. They demonstrate significant neuronal characteristics like spiking that is dependent on ionic concentration, response to a large range of currents, and integration with other organic electrochemical synapses (OECSs). Recently, an article titled “Organic electrochemical neurons and synapses with ion mediated spiking” by Harikesh et al. described how researchers  implanted these artificial semi-organic neurons in the Venus flytrap to open and close their lobes on command based on the frequency of the neuron firing. They also confirmed the significance of the OECN and OECS by creating a simple neuron system using a synaptic transistor to the OECN to create Hebbian learning, better known as the phrase “neurons that fire together, wire together”. With the simple neuron system, they were able to confirm this concept with an increase in firing frequency between the semi organic neuron and synapse from 22 mHz to 30 mHz due to the synaptic transistor. This reminded me of the article “Pin1 Binding to Phosphorylated PSD-95 Regulates the Number of Functional Excitatory Synapses”. Delgado et al. examine the protein PSD-95, which is important in developing excitatory synapses and synaptic plasticity, and its relationship to the isomerase Pin1. Pin1 decreases the palmitoylation of PSD-95, causing a loss of functional excitatory synapses. After reading the article by Harikesh et al., I wondered about the application of regulatory proteins and enzymes like Pin1 or PSD-95 and how they would be compatible with biotechnology like OECNs or OECSs. Since OECNs and OECSs can already demonstrate advances like Hebbian learning and ion mediated spiking, it’s clear that this technology has a lot of potential for human application. I really enjoyed the article by Delgado et al. because prior to reading, I had never thought about the regulation of synapses by other proteins or enzymes.

There is still a lot of work to be done with the integration of technology into humans to improve health outcomes, but the progress we have seen within the last several years has been significant. With the research being conducted on OECNs and OECSs, it is very likely that these semi-organic neurons can be implemented for biosensors and prosthetics in the near future–changing healthcare outcomes for countless lives.

Works Cited

Harikesh, Padinhare Cholakkal. “Venus Flytrap Snaps Shut at Synthetic Neuron’s Command.” Nature, 23 Feb. 2022, www.nature.com/articles/s41467-022-28483-6?error=cookies_not_supported&code=4ad2411a-9319-4647-acc6-a7f0c92c6a28. 

Delgado, Jary. “Pin1 Binding to Phosphorylated PSD-95 Regulates the Number of Functional Excitatory Synapses.” Frontiers, 2020, www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fnmol.2020.00010/full.