A new finding concerning adenoviral-mediated gene transfer: a high-level, cell-specific transgene expression in the neural stem cells of adult mice.

Adenoviruses are highly efficient vectors for gene transfer into brain cells. Restricting transgene expression to specific cell types and maintaining long-term expression are major goals for adenoviral-mediated gene transfer in the central nervous system. Human adenovirus type 5 (Ad5) mediated transgene expression is described under the control of the murine cytomegalovirus (mCMV) immediate-early promoter. It was found that the neural stem cells in the dentate subgranular zone were transduced preferentially, minimal neurons were transduced in the granule cell layer of the dentate gyrus, no EGFP was detected in the pyramidal cell layers of CAl to CA3 area and EGFP activity can be detected for 2 months after infection. Therefore, the mCMV-adenoviral vectors can be used both for studying the function of various genes in the differentiation of neural stem cells and, ultimately, for gene therapy or to modulate specific gene expression.