“…In addition, we evaluated AAV2/8 in combination with regulatory elements known to efficiently transduce rods. We selected both the ubiquitous cytomegalovirus (CMV) promoter, which is known to allow efficient RPE and PR transduction in different species (Bennett et al, 1999;Lai et al, 2004;Allocca et al, 2007;Mussolino et al, 2011), and the human rhodopsin kinase 1 (GRK1) promoter that drives PRspecific gene expression in both rods and cones (Young et al, 2003;Allocca et al, 2007;Khani et al, 2007;Pawlyk et al, 2010;Sun et al, 2010;Beltran et al, 2012;Boye et al, 2012;Petit et al, 2012). As an additional strategy to restrict transgene expression to PRs, we used the CMV promoter in combination with target sites of microRNA (miR) 204, which is expressed at higher levels in the RPE than in PRs (Karali et al, 2007).…”