In vivo selection and glymphatic delivery of AAV5 capsids engineered to target human glial progenitor cells

To establish a means of efficiently transducing human glial progenitor cells (hGPCs) in vivo with therapeutic transgenes, we targeted PDGFRA-driven Cre-recombinase expressing hGPCs in human glial chimeric mice with a library of capsid-modified, recombination-reported adeno-associated viruses (AAVs). PCR screening for gliotropic viral capsid sequences, filtered against visceral organs, identified a set of AAV5-based vectors that preferentially infected human GPCs and/or their derived astrocytes and oligodendrocytes in vivo, with minimal systemic infection. To maximize the intracerebral distribution of these viruses while minimizing their dosing and extracerebral spread, we paired their intracisternal delivery with systemic hypertonicity. This method exploited intracerebral glymphatic flow to bypass the blood-brain barrier, delivering AAV directly into the brain parenchyma. Glymphatic delivery of capsid-modified AAV5s, evolved on human GPCs in vivo, thus enables efficient, brain-wide transgene delivery to human glia and their progenitors in the adult brain, with minimal off-target transduction.