Topic: adeno-associated viral vectors

Studying blood microcirculation is crucial for understanding vascular diseases, yet current imaging methods involving acute administration of fluorescent dyes are invasive and short-lived. To address this limitation, we present here two novel approaches for longitudinal vasculature study. Given that albumin constitutes ~60% of plasma protein and is​​​​ produced by liver hepatocytes, we developed adeno-associated viral vectors (AAVs) with the hepatocyte-specific P3 optimized transthyretin promoter to express the albumin-mNeonGreen or albumin-mScarlet fusion protein. These AAVs were packaged wit

Alpha-synuclein (ASYN) is a presynaptic neuronal protein related genetically and neuropathologically to Parkinson's disease (PD). However, the role of ASYN in the selective degeneration of specific neuronal populations such as the loss of dopamine (DA) neurons in the substantia nigra pars compacta (SNc) remains elusive. Since previous strategies for viral overexpression of ASYN in animals are not cell-type specific, we generated novel adeno-associated viral vectors (AAV) to Cre-dependently express human wild-type ASYN (ASYN-WT) or ASYN with pathogenic A53T or A30P mutations. This strategy allo

Neurons and glial cells are surrounded by interstitial fluid (ISF), which primarily originates from cerebrospinal fluid (CSF). The fluid dynamics of ISF and CSF have been examined by cisterna magna injection of fluid tracers such as fluorescent dextran or contrast agents for magnetic resonance imaging. While this approach has unveiled major CSF flow dynamics in the recent decade, cisterna magna injection introduces transient intracranial pressure changes that can lead to experimental variability. In this study, we attempted to label the CSF/ISF via endogenously expressed secretory fluorescent

Higher order sensory information is typically relayed through the posterior thalamustowards the cortex. Using a transgenic mouse strain, we identified a neuronpopulation in the posterior thalamic nuclear group, based on their transient embryonicexpression of secretagogin, a calcium sensor protein. Anterograde tracing wasperformed by using adeno-associated viral vectors carrying the mCherry transgene in12-16 weeks old Scgn-Cre mice and imaging was performed after standardimmunohistochemistry on a ZEISS 780 CLSM platform. Other animals received AAVparticles carrying Cre-dependent DREADD expressi