Transgene expression of plasmid DNAs directed by viral or neural promoters in the rat brain

Expression Specificity of GFAP Transgenes

“…This search yielded 144 papers involving use of GFAP promoters, of which 45 included an examination of the cell specificity of expression within the CNS (Table II). All but nine of these publications reported activity only in astrocytes, and for six of these nine, the non-astrocytic expression was extremely rare or even uncertain (15,17,19,28,35,43). One of the remaining three papers that did observe significant non-astrocytic activity is that of Galou et al (14) discussed above.…”

“…Only nine studies used a neuronal marker, and nearly half (four) of these reported non-astrocytic expression, with two being in neurons (28,53) and two in undefined cells in the subfornical organ that stained for GFAP, MAP-2 and NeuN (15,43). In contrast, in the absence of a neuronal marker, only about 15% (five of 36) of the investigations reported neuronal activity (14,17,19,26,35). It is possible the observed incidence of neuronal expression of GFAP transgenes would be much higher were neuronal markers routinely used; on the other hand, it is also possible that they were used in the cited instances because morphology or absence of GFAP staining had raised suspicion of such activity.…”

Efficient gene transfer and long-term expression in neurons using a recombinant adenovirus with a neuron-specific promoter

“…The high level of adenoviral replication allowed in these E1 gene-containing cells could explain this difference in ␤-galactosidase expression. Preferential, rather than specific, neuronal expression has previously been observed following rat brain injection with naked plasmids containing the NSELacZ cassette 11 or adeno-associated virus (AAV) vector containing the NSE-green fluorescent protein cassette. 12 Strict cell-specific expression of the LacZ gene from recombinant adenoviruses carrying Purkinje cell-or oligodendrocyte-specific promoters has also been reported.…”

Quantitative comparison of expression with adeno-associated virus (AAV-2) brain-specific gene cassettes

“…13 Moreover an in vivo study involving plasmid DNA under control of different cellular (NSE, GFAP) or viral (CMV) promoters had suggested that GFAP and CMV were both superior to NSE in promoting the expression of a reporter gene in the brain. 19 In light of these conflicting results, we sought to test a range of promoters and regulatory elements in AAV-2.…”