A Rapid Method for Producing Adeno-Associated Viral Vectors Suitable for Transducing Rodent Neurons in vitro and in vivo

Abstract

The use of adeno-associated viral vectors for delivery of genetic information into the mammalian CNS remains popular but producing highly purified vectors for in vivo applications requires a significant investment of resources and time that can impede the development and testing of AAV vectors for experimentation. To address this issue, we have developed a simplified AAV packaging protocol that does not require large capital equipment (ultracentrifugation or chromatography machines) yet still produces virus in quantities that are sufficient for testing AAV prototypes in the rodent CNS. This protocol is serotype agnostic, and has been successful with AAV1, AAV9, AAV-DJ, and rAAV2-retro. Intracranial injection of AAV-EF1a-GFP-KASH into rats demonstrated that our "small scale" AAV preps produce patterns of transgene expression and inflammation that are similar to those produced by the same AAV vector purified by affinity column chromatography. Our protocol allows for multiple vectors to be packaged and processed in parallel, making it ideal for testing multiple variants, constructs, and prototypes simultaneously.