Evaluation of AAV-DJ vector for retinal gene therapy

Purpose The most common virus vector used in gene therapy research for ophthalmologic diseases is the adeno-associated virus (AAV) vector, which has been used successfully in a number of preclinical and clinical studies. It is important to evaluate novel AAV vectors in animal models for application of clinical gene therapy. The AAV-DJ (type 2/type 8/type 9 chimera) was engineered from shuffling eight different wild-type native viruses. In this study, we investigated the efficiency of gene transfer by AAV-DJ injections into the retina. Methods One microliter of AAV-2-CAGGS-EGFP or AAV-DJ-CAGGS-EGFP vector at a titer of 1.4 × 10e12 vg/ml was injected intravitreally or subretinally in each eye of C57BL/6 mice. We evaluated the transduction characteristics of AAV-2 and -DJ vectors using fluorescence microscopy and electroretinography. Results The results confirmed that AAV-DJ could deeply transfer gene to photoreceptor layer with intravitreal injection and has an efficient gene transfer to various cell types especially the Mueller cells in the retina. Retinal function was not affected by AAV-DJ infection or ectopic EGFP expression. Conclusions The AAV-DJ vector efficiently induces the reporter gene in both the inner and outer murine retina without functional toxicity. These data indicated that the AAV-DJ vector is a useful tool for the gene therapy research targeting retinal disorders.