Gene Expression Changes in Response to Baculoviral Vector Transduction of Normal Human Astrocytes In Vitro

Recombinant baculoviral vectors efficiently transduce several types of cells in the brain. To characterize host responses to viral challenge, thus verifying the suitability of using the virus for the development of gene therapy strategies in the central nervous system, we used cDNA microarray technology to examine in vitro and in vivo global cellular gene expression profiles after viral transduction. We demonstrated that the transduction induced host antiviral responses as a major reaction in all three types of samples profiled, including the rat brain, cultured human astrocytes and human neuronal cells. The related genes were mainly those associated with innate immunity. Several genes of the major histocompatibility complex molecules, an important component of the host adaptive immunity to exogenous pathogens, were up-regulated in the rat brain and human astrocytes, but not in neuronal cells. We also observed that genes related to cell death and apoptosis were up-regulated and genes related cell cycle regulation were down-regulated in neuronal cells, but not obviously affected in astrocytes. These findings should be useful in understating the molecular basis for neural cell response to baculoviral transduction and guiding rational applications of baculoviral vectors in the central nervous systems

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Boulaire J, Zhao Y, Wang S