Journal
NATURE NANOTECHNOLOGY
Volume 13, Issue 8, Pages 755-+Publisher
NATURE PUBLISHING GROUP
DOI: 10.1038/s41565-018-0163-6
Keywords
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Funding
- European Union [696656, 720270]
- Flanders Research Foundation [G0F1517N]
- AXA Research Fund
- Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness MINECO [CTQ2016-76721-R]
- University of Trieste
- Diputacion Foral de Gipuzkoa program Red [101]
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The use of graphene-based materials to engineer sophisticated biosensing interfaces that can adapt to the central nervous system requires a detailed understanding of how such materials behave in a biological context. Graphene's peculiar properties can cause various cellular changes, but the underlying mechanisms remain unclear. Here, we show that single-layer graphene increases neuronal firing by altering membrane-associated functions in cultured cells. Graphene tunes the distribution of extracellular ions at the interface with neurons, a key regulator of neuronal excitability. The resulting biophysical changes in the membrane include stronger potassium ion currents, with a shift in the fraction of neuronal firing phenotypes from adapting to tonically firing. By using experimental and theoretical approaches, we hypothesize that the graphene-ion interactions that are maximized when single-layer graphene is deposited on electrically insulating substrates are crucial to these effects.
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