Services

Lentiviral vectors

The Core will assist investigators with the design and construction of lentiviral vectors, and with small or large scale viral packaging. We can provide viruses expressing marker proteins for use in testing viral expression in different cell types and organs. Basic reporter vectors are available for research purposes to Washington University investigators; some transgenes and vectors may require that the investigator obtain permission from the source lab. Investigators should obtain Recombinant DNA approval from Environmental Health and Safety prior to using these vectors in their laboratories. Labs that have not yet obtained approval can perform some experiments in the Core facility with training and supervision by Core staff. Vectors are not available for for-profit or human diagnostic applications.

Lentiviral vectors are now widely used for modeling brain diseases, for genetic pharmacology and for delivery of potential therapies into animal models. The Hope Center Viral Vectors Core uses third generation HIV-1 based lentiviral vectors. These vectors have been used successsfully in rodent models of lysosomal storage diseases (Hofling et al., 2004,) in cultured neurons (Lee et al., 2004) and in PNS cell types such as Schwann cells and dorsal root ganglion cultures (Abdulkadir et al., 2002; Modur et al., 2002; Araki et al., 2004; Schalch et al., 2004; Le et al., 2005; Bermingham et al., 2006). Third generation lentiviral vectors offer several advantages: they readily transduce CNS neurons and glia, lymphocytes, endothelial cells and stem cells; they have very low toxicity, induce a minimal immune response, and are expressed for prolonged periods (6 months or longer, Blomer et al., 1997). Vectors used currently have a moderate cloning capacity (up to 8 kb) and can be generated with dual promoters or with internal ribosome entry sites (IRES) to enable expression of two transgenes from the same mRNA (e.g., the FCIV vector used here, see Araki et al., 2004).

Constructs we have available and information on expression levels:

Adeno-associated virus (AAV) vectors

Under construction.. Spring 2007.