Gene transfer into skeletal muscle using novel AAV serotypes

Abstract

Background: Skeletal muscle is an interesting target for gene delivery because of its mass and because the vectors can be delivered in a noninvasive way. Adeno-associated virus (AAV) vectors are capable of transducing skeletal muscle fibers and achieving stable and safe transgene expression. To date, most animal experiments using AAV have been based on AAV serotype 2, but some recent studies have demonstrated that AAV1 is more efficient than AAV2/2 in transducing muscle fibers. Recently, novel AAVs (AAV7 and AAV8) were isolated from rhesus macaques.

Methods: We injected three different muscles (gastrocnemius, soleus, biceps femoris) of immunocompetent C57BL/6 mice with different pseudotyped AAV serotypes (AAV2/1, AAV2/2, AAV2/5, AAV2/7 and AAV2/8) and quantitatively compared the different gene transfer efficiencies.

Results: The efficiencies of transduction in skeletal muscle with AAV2/7 and AAV2/8 were similar to AAV2/1, and higher than that seen with AAV2/2 and AAV2/5. All serotypes were able to transduce both slow and fast muscle fibers similarly at the vector titer used (1x10(11) genome copies per mouse). Despite a limited inflammatory response (slightly higher when using AAV2/2, AAV2/7 and AAV2/8 vectors than AAV2/1 and AAV2/5), transgene expression was observed throughout the length of the experiment.

Discussion: These results show that AAV2/7 and AAV2/8 are able to transduce muscle fibers of immunocompetent mice very efficiently, offering new perspectives in gene transfer of skeletal muscle.