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Does neuronal expression of GDNF effectively protect dopaminergic neurons in a rat model of Parkinson's disease?

Gene Therapy volume 14, pages 441–450 (2007)Cite this article

Abstract

The transfer of the Glial cell line-derived neurotrophic factor (GDNF) gene to the central nervous system by a recombinant adenoviral vector (Ad) was studied. We constructed the adenovirus vector Ad-NSE-GDNF from which the E1, E3/E4 regions of Ad5 have been deleted and in which the GDNF gene was under the control of a neuron-specific enolase (NSE) promoter. The vector was injected into the striatum of a rat model of Parkinson's disease. We found that (i) the NSE promoter can restrict transgene expression in neurons; (ii) Ad-NSE-GDNF significantly protected dopaminergic (DA) neurons in the substantia nigra (SN) but did not reverse the impairments of amphetamine-induced rotational behavior in lesioned rats.

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Acknowledgements

We thank Professor H Koenig for helpful discussions, and J Formentin for animal care. We thank the Vector Core of the University Hospital of Nantes supported by the Association Française Contre les Myopathies (AFM) for providing the AAV vectors. This work was supported by Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Université Pierre et Marie Curie, Paris 6 and Institut pour la Recherche sur la Moelle Epiniere et l’Encephale (IRME), France.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Laboratoire de Genetique Moleculaire de la Neurotransmission et des Processus Neurodegeneratifs, CNRS, UMR 7091, Bat. CERVI, Hopital Pitie-Salpetriere, Paris, France

    N A Do Thi, P Saillour & J Mallet

  2. Gencell SAS, Vitry sur Seine, France

    L Ferrero

  3. Department of Molecular Medicine, Biomedicum, Helsinki, Finland

    T Paunio

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  1. N A Do Thi
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Correspondence to J Mallet.

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Do Thi, N., Saillour, P., Ferrero, L. et al. Does neuronal expression of GDNF effectively protect dopaminergic neurons in a rat model of Parkinson's disease?. Gene Ther 14, 441–450 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1038/sj.gt.3302844

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