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Robust cardiomyocyte-specific gene expression following systemic injection of AAV: in vivo gene delivery follows a Poisson distribution

Gene Therapy volume 18, pages 43–52 (2011)Cite this article

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Abstract

Newly isolated serotypes of AAV readily cross the endothelial barrier to provide efficient transgene delivery throughout the body. However, tissue-specific expression is preferred in most experimental studies and gene therapy protocols. Previous efforts to restrict gene expression to the myocardium often relied on direct injection into heart muscle or intracoronary perfusion. Here, we report an AAV vector system employing the cardiac troponin T (cTnT) promoter. Using luciferase and enhanced green fluorescence protein (eGFP), the efficiency and specificity of cardiac reporter gene expression using AAV serotype capsids: AAV-1, 2, 6, 8 or 9 were tested after systemic administration to 1-week-old mice. Luciferase assays showed that the cTnT promoter worked in combination with each of the AAV serotype capsids to provide cardiomyocyte-specific gene expression, but AAV-9 followed closely by AAV-8 was the most efficient. AAV9-mediated gene expression from the cTnT promoter was 640-fold greater in the heart compared with the next highest tissue (liver). eGFP fluorescence indicated a transduction efficiency of 96% using AAV-9 at a dose of only 3.15 × 1010 viral particles per mouse. Moreover, the intensity of cardiomyocyte eGFP fluorescence measured on a cell-by-cell basis revealed that AAV-mediated gene expression in the heart can be modeled as a Poisson distribution, requiring an average of nearly two vector genomes per cell to attain an 85% transduction efficiency.

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Acknowledgements

We acknowledge Dr James Trempe for pSH5, Dr Mark Kay for pDP1 and pDP6, Dr James Wilson for p5E18-VD2/8 and p5E18-VD2/9 and Daniel M O'Connor for technical contributions. This work was supported by NIH R01s HL058582 and HL069494 (to BAF).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Biomedical Engineering, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA, USA

    K-M R Prasad, Y Xu, Z Yang & B A French

  2. Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA, USA

    S T Acton

  3. Department of Medicine, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA, USA

    B A French

  4. Department of Radiology, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA, USA

    B A French

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Correspondence to B A French.

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Prasad, KM., Xu, Y., Yang, Z. et al. Robust cardiomyocyte-specific gene expression following systemic injection of AAV: in vivo gene delivery follows a Poisson distribution. Gene Ther 18, 43–52 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1038/gt.2010.105

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