Cre-lox recombination is a site-specific recombination technique widely used in genetic engineering and molecular biology to manipulate genes in various organisms. Cre recombinase, derived from P1 bacteriophage, recognizes loxP sites (i.e., specific DNA sequences) and can excise, invert, or transfer DNA at these sites. When Cre is expressed in cells, it can recombinate DNA fragments on both sides of the loxP sites, allowing scientists to study gene function, create deletions, or induce specific genetic changes in the genome.
Adeno-associated virus (AAV) vectors are often used to deliver genetic material into cells due to their ability to infect a variety of cell types, lack of pathogenicity, and potential for long-term expression of transgenes. Among the various serotypes, AAV serotype 6 (AAV6) is frequently used for gene therapy and research applications. AAV6 has a strong tropism for lung and muscle tissues, making it particularly advantageous for targeting diseases that affect these organs. In the context of Cre-lox technology, AAV6 can be used to deliver Cre recombinase to specific tissues in animal models. By packaging the Cre gene into an AAV6 vector, researchers can induce recombination specifically at loxP-flanked sites in target tissues, which is ideal for studying tissue-specific gene function and disease mechanisms.
In this study, researchers uncovered potential roles for the corticospinal, cerebellar-rubrospinal, and hypothalamic A11 dopaminergic systems in the development of restless legs syndrome (RLS)-like movements during sleep through targeted ablations. Targeted lesions in selective basal ganglia (BG) structures also revealed important roles for nigrostriatal dopamine, striatum, and external globus pallidus (GPe) in modulating RLS-like movements, particularly the pallial cortical projections from the GPe to the motor cortex. Further studies showed that pramipexiole, a dopamine agonist used to treat human RLS, reduced RLS-like movements. Taken together, the data here suggest that BG-cortico-spinal, cerebellar-rubrospinal, and A11 descending projections all contribute to the suppression of motor activity during sleep and sleep-wake transitions, and that disruption of these circuit nodes produces RLS-like movements. These findings provide further support for the concept that the anatomic and genetic etiological bases of RLS are diverse.
Here, to avoid the weight loss caused by bilateral GPe lesions, the researchers performed unilateral GPe lesions in five rats with ibotenic acid (Figure 1). Two weeks later, they recorded EEG/EMG/video for 24 hours.
Figure 1. Histology of GPe and pallial cortical neuronal lesions. GPe lesions were made with ibotenic acid (A). Selective lesions of pallial cortical neurons were produced by injection of AAV6-cre in M2 and the cre-dependent AAV10-DTA in GPe (B-D). Since AAV6-cre was injected only into M2 (C), cell loss in the GPe was limited to pallial cortical neurons projecting to M2 (D), while pallial cortical neurons projecting to other cortical areas were not affected. Arrows point to cre-labeled neurons that were not exposed to AAV-DTA-mCherry, while no cre was seen in the presence of AAV-DTA-mCherry (brown), indirectly indicating that cre-labeled pallial cortical neurons were killed. (Guo C N, et al., 2017)
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