Abstract
Cre/loxP-mediated inactivation of phosphatase and tensin homolog (PTEN) is proposed to be a promising therapeutic agent for promoting CNS and PNS regeneration. And adeno-associated virus (AAV) vector has been developed as an attractive gene delivery system with proven safety. In the present study, we investigated Cre/loxP-mediated knockout of PTEN in the sensorimotor cortex, hippocampus, and spinal cord in PTEN floxed mice by immunohistological analysis of PI3K/AKT/mTOR expression in neurons of the sensorimotor cortex, hippocampus, and spinal cord after sensorimotor cortex injection of AAV-Cre. Two weeks after injection of AAV-Cre, the sensorimotor cortex, hippocampus, and spinal cord were dissected and examined the expression of downstream molecules pAKT and pS6 of PI3K/AKT signaling pathway. The results showed that remote delivery of AAV-Cre through sensorimotor cortex injection mediated PTEN knockout in neurons of the sensorimotor cortex, hippocampus, and spinal cord. We propose sensorimotor cortex injection of AAV may provide a potential strategy of gene therapy for the CNS diseases.
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Acknowledgments
This work was supported by grants from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC No: 81171719). We thank Dr. Dongsheng Wu for reading and revising this manuscript.
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The authors declare that they have no competing interests.
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Yang, P., Qin, Y., Zhang, W. et al. Sensorimotor Cortex Injection of Adeno-Associated Viral Vector Mediates Knockout of PTEN in Neurons of the Brain and Spinal Cord of Mice. J Mol Neurosci 57, 470–476 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12031-015-0610-x
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12031-015-0610-x