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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Photonics

Sec. Biophotonics

Volume 6 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fphot.2025.1647467

Light-induced secretion and transformation of neurotransmitter dopamine

Provisionally accepted
Lei ChenLei Chen1*Shuanghong WeiShuanghong Wei1Chang LiuChang Liu2Zuomeng WuZuomeng Wu3Jianmin SiJianmin Si4Xingxing HuoXingxing Huo5Cailiang ShenCailiang Shen3Yi ZhenYi Zhen6Dongwei LiuDongwei Liu2
  • 1Hefei University of Technology, Hefei, China
  • 2Second Affiliated Hospital of Anhui Medical University, Hefei, China
  • 3The First Affiliated Hospital of Anhui Medical University, Hefei, China
  • 4Anhui Provincial Hospital, Hefei, China
  • 5The First Affiliated Hospital of Anhui University of Chinese Medicine, Hefei, China
  • 6Beijing Tongren Eye Center, Beijing, China

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Dopamine (DA) is one of the most important neurotransmitters in the human body, which is becoming a key breakthrough for addressing myopia, neurodegenerative diseases such as Parkinson's disease and Alzheimer's disease, and mental diseases like depression and schizophrenia. However, the activity of dopamine shows diurnal and seasonal variations, maybe due to the influence of solar activity time on the biological clock of the suprachiasmatic nucleus. By irradiating ARPE-19 cells with red and near-infrared light of different wavelengths, this work studied and confirmed that the secretion and transformation of the light-induced neurotransmitter dopamine significantly depend on the pair of light wavelength and light dose. One type of single LED-chip light sources with emission peak at 620, 680, 730, 800 and 850 nm, and another type of phosphor-converted LEDs light sources with emission peak at 710 and 830 nm, respectively, were used. It is confirmed that both the red and near-infrared light with variant wavelengths and doses all can induce dopamine secretion to some extent. Yet, the concentrations of dopamine induced by the wideband spectral light of W710 and SW830 are higher than those induced by the narrowband single LED-chip light and remain relatively stable under variant light doses. Among all light sources, the model SW830 light source is the best one. This paper provides a non-invasive way to induce the secretion of neurotransmitter dopamine and pave a solid way to treat myopia, neurodegenerative, and other diseases by using the neurotransmitter dopamine and the basic knowledge of photophysiology.

Keywords: Dopamine, neurotransmitter, Light, photobiomodulation, photophysiology, secretion, Metabolism

Received: 15 Jun 2025; Accepted: 15 Aug 2025.

Copyright: © 2025 Chen, Wei, Liu, Wu, Si, Huo, Shen, Zhen and Liu. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

* Correspondence: Lei Chen, Hefei University of Technology, Hefei, China

Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.

Supplementary Material