Development of a Chemogenetic Approach to Manipulate Intracellular pH.

Chemogenetic Operation of iNTRacellular prOton Levels (pH-Control) is a novel substrate-based enzymatic method that enables precise spatiotemporal control of ultralocal acidification in cultured cell lines and primary neurons. The genetically encoded biosensor SypHer3s showed that pH-Control effectively acidifies cytosolic, mitochondrial, and nuclear pH exclusively in the presence of β-chloro-d-alanine in living cells in a concentration-dependent manner. The pH-Control approach is promising for investigating the ultralocal pH imbalance associated with many diseases.