Synapsin-GFP AAV (serotype 6) is a viral vector widely used in neuroscience and genetic engineering due to its ability to efficiently transduce neurons. Synapsin is a neuron-specific promoter that ensures that expression of green fluorescent protein (GFP) is primarily confined to neuronal cells, making it a valuable tool for neuroscientists studying neuronal circuits, connectivity, and function.
Adeno-associated virus (AAV) vectors are favored for gene delivery due to their safety, ability to infect both dividing and non-dividing cells, and sustained expression. Specifically, AAV serotype 6 exhibits higher transduction efficiency in a variety of neuronal types compared to other serotypes such as AAV1 and AAV2. This makes AAV6 particularly suitable for applications that require stable expression in neuronal tissue.
The inclusion of GFP allows transduced cells to be visualized under a fluorescent microscope. This bright green fluorescence provides a clear and detailed view of neuronal morphology, allowing scientists to map neural pathways and study dynamic processes within neurons. GFP is an excellent reporter gene that provides insight into gene expression, protein localization, and the effects of gene modifications.
Nonsurgical gene delivery to the brain can be achieved by intravenous injection of viral vectors coupled with transcranial MRI-guided focused ultrasound (MRIgFUS) to temporarily and locally permeabilize the blood-brain barrier. The choice of vector and promoter can provide neuronal expression in the brain while limiting biodistribution and expression in peripheral organs. Here, researchers evaluated the amount of viral DNA from serotypes AAV9, AAV6, and chimeric AAV1&2 expressing green fluorescent protein (GFP) under the neuron-specific synapsin promoter (syn). AAV was injected intravenously during MRIgFUS targeting of the striatum and hippocampus of mice. The syn promoter resulted in undetectable levels of GFP expression in peripheral organs. In the liver, biodistribution was 12.9-fold and 4.4-fold higher for AAV9 and AAV1&2, respectively, compared with AAV6. AAV6-syn-GFP and AAV1&2-syn-GFP showed comparable percentages of GFP-positive neurons in FUS-targeted regions of the brain. In conclusion, MRIgFUS-mediated AAV6-syn-GFP gene delivery had lower off-target biodistribution in the liver compared to AAV9 and AAV1&2, while providing neuronal GFP expression in the striatum and hippocampus.
MRIgFUS delivered AAV1&2-syn-GFP and AAV6-syn-GFP (3 × 109 VG/g) from the blood to the hippocampus, striatum, thalamus, and cortex, resulting in GFP transgene expression (Figure 1). Animals injected with both AAV1&2-syn-GFP and AAV6-syn-GFP showed clear GFP expression in the hippocampus (Figure 1a, b). At higher magnification, GFP expression was seen throughout the cell bodies and processes in the hippocampus (Figure 1c, h), striatum (Figure 1d, i), cortex (Figure 1e, j), and thalamus (Figure 1f, k). GFP-positive cell bodies were completely colocalized with NeuN-positive (neuronal marker) cells (Figure 1g, l). This confirmed the presence of neuron-specific transgene expression in the brain under the syn promoter in combination with AAV1&2 and 6 serotypes.
Figure 1. Transgene expression in neurons after MRIgFUS delivery of AAV to the hippocampus, striatum, thalamus, and cortex. (Weber-Adrian D, et al., 2021)
Customer Reviews
Versatility
Synapsin-GFP AAV (Serotype 6)'s versatility in applications, from in vitro culture to in vivo studies, makes it a vital tool in our laboratory’s research arsenal."
Write a Review