Adeno-associated virus (AAV) is emerging as one of the preferred vectors for therapeutic gene transfer. AAV belongs to the Parvoviridae family and consists of a single-stranded DNA genome of approximately 4.7 kb encapsidated in an icosahedral viral capsid. AAV is a potential delivery vector because it has five specific properties that facilitate safe and efficient gene delivery: (1) certain AAV strains are not associated with severe disease; (2) AAV can be engineered to be essentially devoid of viral DNA; (3) they can stably express many genes in vivo while inducing limited immune responses to the vector or transgene; (4) they have broad and promiscuous tropisms; and (5) they can achieve efficient and long-lived gene transfer.
AAV9 is a human AAV serotype that has greatly improved transduction efficiency in cardiac and skeletal muscle, liver and pancreatic tissue, and the eye compared to other serotypes. Recently, a single intravenous injection of an AAV9 vector expressing α-N-acetylglucosaminidase (NAGLU) into mice with mucopolysaccharidosis IIIB (MPS IIIB; a lysosomal storage disorder) corrected lysosomal storage pathology in the central and peripheral nervous systems and corrected astrocytosis and neurodegeneration. Given these properties, AAV9 is currently being developed for the treatment of neurodegenerative diseases such as spinal muscular atrophy, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, Parkinson's disease, and MPS IIIB. In addition, while existing antibodies to AAV have been shown to be detrimental to AAV gene delivery, the prevalence of AAV9 antibodies in humans is lower than that of other serotypes, such as AAV1 and AAV2, making this serotype a more attractive candidate for development as a gene delivery vector.
Delicate interneuronal communication between presynaptic and postsynaptic membranes is essential for synaptic plasticity and memory formation. Evidence suggests that membrane/lipid rafts (MLRs), plasma membrane microdomains enriched with cholesterol and sphingolipids, organize presynaptic proteins and postsynaptic receptors essential for synapse formation and signaling. Here, researchers demonstrate that in the adult mouse hippocampus, neuronal-targeted overexpression of the MLR protein Caveolin-1 (SynCav1) increases the number of presynaptic vesicles per synaptic terminal, total excitatory type I glutamatergic synapses, the number of multisynaptic terminals on the same dendrite, increased myelination, increased long-term potentiation, and increased MLR-localized N-methyl-d-aspartate receptor subunits (GluN1, GluN2A, and GluN2B). Immunogold electron microscopy revealed that Cav-1 localizes to presynaptic and postsynaptic membrane regions as well as the synaptic cleft. These observations suggest that Cav-1 and MLRs alter fundamental aspects of synaptic biology and could serve as potential therapeutic targets for promoting neuroplasticity and combating neurodegeneration in a variety of neurological diseases.
Previous studies have shown that SynCav1 promotes dendritic arborization of hippocampal neurons and improves hippocampus-dependent learning and memory. Therefore, researchers performed electron microscopy (EM) on the hippocampus of adult mice injected with AAV9-Syn-RFP or AAV9-Syn-Cav1 to assess ultrastructural indicators of synaptic plasticity. SynCav1 significantly increased total excitatory synapses, had a clear asymmetry in postsynaptic synapse density, and significantly increased the number of PSVs and dsMSBs per axon terminal compared with mice receiving AAV9-Syn-RFP. The researchers also used G-ratio analysis to measure changes in myelination in the hippocampus of adult mice injected with AAV9-Syn-RFP or AAV9-Syn-Cav1. SynCav1 was found to significantly reduce the G ratio (Figure 1A). The decrease in G-ratio was not due to the narrowing of the axonal lumen (Figure 1B) but to an increase in myelin diameter (Figure 1C). These results indicate that SynCav1 affects ultrastructural changes in the hippocampal CA1 subfield consistent with those observed following events that promote synaptic plasticity.
Figure 1. SynCav1 increases myelin structure in the hippocampus. AAV9-Syn-RFP or AAV9-Syn-Cav1 was delivered directly to the hippocampus stereotaxically, and the brains were ready for conventional EM treatment 2 months later. (Egawa J, et al., 2018)
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The AAV9-Syn-RFP from Creative Biogene delivered consistent and reliable RFP expression under the human synapsin promoter. The pre-packaged format saved us significant time.
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