Modified herpes simplex virus delivery of enhanced GFP into the central nervous system
- Resource Type
- Authors
- Helen G. Lo; Vladislav M. Sandler; David E. Clapham; Sam Wang; Kamilla Angelo; Xandra O. Breakefield
- Source
- Journal of Neuroscience Methods. 121:211-219
- Subject
- Central Nervous System
Patch-Clamp Techniques
Genetic Vectors
Green Fluorescent Proteins
Central nervous system
Herpesvirus 1, Human
Striatum
In Vitro Techniques
Gene delivery
Biology
medicine.disease_cause
Membrane Potentials
Green fluorescent protein
Rats, Sprague-Dawley
Transduction, Genetic
Gene expression
medicine
Animals
Cells, Cultured
General Neuroscience
Gene Amplification
Gene Transfer Techniques
Amplicon
Immunohistochemistry
Virology
Rats
Cell biology
Luminescent Proteins
Herpes simplex virus
medicine.anatomical_structure
nervous system
Cerebral cortex
- Language
- ISSN
- 0165-0270
Controlled expression of proteins is a key experimental approach to a deeper understanding of the molecular basis of neuronal function. Here we evaluate the HSV-1 (herpes simplex virus) amplicon vector for gene delivery into the brains of living rats. We demonstrate that HSV-1 amplicon vectors expressing enhanced green fluorescent protein (EGFP) can reliably infect neurons after it is injected into cortex, striatum and thalamus in rats, producing sufficient numbers of infected neurons for electrophysiological experiments in acute brain slices. Expression of EGFP delivered by the HSV-1 amplicon was detected for up to 5 weeks post-infection. We detected no changes in the morphology or the electrophysiological properties of thalamic, striatal or cortical neurons within a period of at least 2 weeks after HSV-1 amplicon injection. We conclude that the HSV-1 amplicon is a valuable tool for gene delivery in the rat central nervous system.