J. Virol., Aug 1995, 4593-4599, Vol 69, No. 8
RL Smith, AI Geller, KW Escudero and CL Wilcox
Amplicons, defective herpes simplex virus type 1 (HSV-1) vectors, were
constructed to use four HSV-1 promoters, from the immediate-early (IE) 1 IE
3, IE 4/5, and late glycoprotein C (gC) genes, to regulate expression of
the Escherichia coli lacZ gene, encoding beta- galactosidase, and packaged
into infectious particles. Infection of sensory neurons in vitro with
amplicons containing the IE 1, IE 3, or IE 4/5 promoter resulted in stable
long-term expression of beta- galactosidase from 2 to 10 weeks after gene
transfer. The number of neurons expressing beta-galactosidase was not
changed by treatments previously shown to produce reactivation of latent
HSV-1. In addition, the latency-associated transcript was detected in many
of the same neurons that expressed beta-galactosidase, indicating that the
viral IE promoters in the amplicons can function in the same neurons that
harbor latent virus. Delivery of beta-galactosidase protein directly into
neurons by microinjection indicated that the half-life for histochemical
detection of beta-galactosidase was between 24 and 48 h, suggesting that
the persistence of beta-galactosidase histochemical staining cannot be
explained by the stability of the reporter protein alone. In contrast to
the IE promoters, the gC promoter of the late gene class did not support
long-term expression of beta-galactosidase; instead, beta-galactosidase was
detected in only a few neurons per culture at 2 weeks after infection, and
superinfection with wild-type HSV-1 did not increase the level of
expression from the gC promoter. These results suggest that the HSV-1 IE
promoters in the amplicons are not subject to the promoter inactivation
that occurs with many types of virus vectors and that the IE promoters in
the context of the amplicon avoid the promoter inactivation observed from
the same promoters in the HSV-1 genome during latency.
Copyright © 1995, American Society for Microbiology
Long-term expression in sensory neurons in tissue culture from herpes simplex virus type 1 (HSV-1) promoters in an HSV-1-derived vector
Department of Neurology and Pediatrics, University of Colorado Health Sciences Center, Denver, USA.
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