title: Adenoviral and adeno-associated viral vectors-mediated neuronal gene transfer to cardiovascular control regions of the rat brain.
abstract: Viral vectors have been utilized extensively to introduce genetic material into the central nervous system. In order to investigate gene functions in cardiovascular control regions of rat brain, we applied WPRE (woodchuck hepatitis virus post-transcriptional regulatory element) enhanced-adenoviral (Ad) and adeno-assoicated virus (AAV) type 2 vectors to mediate neuronal gene delivery to the paraventricular nucleus of the hypothalamus, the nucleus tractus solitarius and the rostral ventrolateral medulla, three important cardiovascular control regions known to express renin-angiotensin system (RAS) genes. Ad or AAV2 harboring an enhanced green fluorescent protein (EGFP) reporter gene or the angiotensin type 2 receptor gene were microinjected into these brain regions in adult rats. Our results demonstrated that both AAV2 and Ad vectors elicited long-term neuronal transduction in these regions. Interestingly, we found that the WPRE caused expression of GFP driven by the synapsin1 promoter in pure glial cultures or co-cultures of neurons and glia derived from rat hypothalamus and brainstem. However, in rat paraventricular nucleus WPRE did not cause expression of GFP in glia. This demonstrates the potential use of these vectors in studies of physiological functions of certain genes in the cardiovascular control regions of the brain.
authors.affiliation: School of Biotechnology, Southern Medical University, Guangzhou, China.
authors.forename: Yanling
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: Yongxin
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Gao
authors.forename: Robert C
authors.initials: RC
authors.lastname: Speth
authors.forename: Nan
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Jiang
authors.forename: Yingying
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Mao
authors.forename: Colin
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Sumners
authors.forename: Hongwei
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Li
mesh_terms: D000256:Adenoviridae; D000818:Animals; D001921:Brain / Q000502:physiology*; D001931:Brain Mapping; D002319:Cardiovascular System; D018014:Gene Transfer Techniques; D005822:Genetic Vectors; D049452:Green Fluorescent Proteins; D008297:Male; D009474:Neurons / Q000166:cytology / Q000502:physiology*; D011401:Promoter Regions, Genetic; D051381:Rats; D012045:Regulatory Sequences, Nucleic Acid; D012084:Renin-Angiotensin System
chemical_list: C485184:enhanced green fluorescent protein; D049452:Green Fluorescent Proteins
keywords: adeno-associated viral vector; adenoviral vector; cardiovascular control regions of brain; gene transfer.; neuron