Lentiviral vectors deliver transgenes efficiently to a wide range of neuronal cell types in the mammalian central nervous system. To drive gene expression, internal promoters are essential; however, the in vivo properties of promoters, such as their cell type specificity and gene expression activity, are not well known, especially in the nonhuman primate brain. Here, the properties of five ubiquitous promoters (murine stem cell virus [MSCV], cytomegalovirus [CMV], CMV early enhancer/chicken β-actin [CAG], human elongation factor-1α [EF-1α], and Rous sarcoma virus [RSV]) and two cell type-specific promoters (rat synapsin I and mouse α-calcium/calmodulin-dependent protein kinase II [CaMKIIα]) in rat and monkey motor cortices in vivo were characterized. Vesicular stomatitis virus G (VSV-G)-pseudotyped lentiviral vectors expressing enhanced green fluorescent protein (EGFP) under the control of the various promoters were prepared and injected into rat and monkey motor cortices. Immunohistochemical analysis revealed that all of the VSV-G-pseudotyped lentiviral vectors had strong endogenous neuronal tropisms in rat and monkey brains. Among the seven promoters, the CMV promoter showed modest expression in glial cells (9.4%) of the rat brain, whereas the five ubiquitous promoters (MSCV, CMV, CAG, EF-1α, and RSV) showed expression in glial cells (7.0-14.7%) in the monkey brain. Cell type-specific synapsin I and CaMKIIα promoters showed excitatory neuron-specific expression in the monkey brain (synapsin I, 99.7%; CaMKIIα, 100.0%), but their specificities for excitatory neurons were significantly lower in the rat brain (synapsin I, 94.6%; CaMKIIα, 93.7%). These findings could be useful in basic and clinical neuroscience research for the design of vectors that efficiently deliver and express transgenes into rat and monkey brains.
The present study was to investigate the influence of tenuigenin, an active ingredient of Polygala tenuifolia Willd, on the proliferation and differentiation of hippocampal neural stem cells in vitro. Tenuigenin was added to a neurosphere culture and neurosphere growth was measured using MTT assay. The influence of tenuigenin on the proliferation of neural progenitors was examined by Clone forming assay and BrdU detection. In addition, the differentiation of neural stem cells was compared using immunocytochemistry for β III-tubulin and GFAP. The results showed that addition of tenuigenin to the neural stem cell medium increased the number of newly formed neurospheres. More neurons were also obtained when tenuigenin was added in the differentiation medium. These findings suggest that tenuigenin is involved in regulating the proliferation and differentiation of hippocampal neural stem cells. This result may be one of the underlying reasons for tenuigenin's nootropic and anti-aging effects.
The Cistanche species (“Rou Cong Rong” in Chinese) is an endangered wild species growing in arid or semi-arid areas. The dried fleshy stem of Cistanches has been used as a tonic in China for many years. Modern pharmacological studies have since demonstrated that Herba Cistanches possesses broad medicinal functions, especially for use in anti-senescence, anti-oxidation, neuroprotection, anti-inflammation, hepatoprotection, immunomodulation, anti-neoplastic, anti-osteoporosis and the promotion of bone formation. This review summarizes the up-to-date and comprehensive information on Herba Cistanches covering the aspects of the botany, traditional uses, phytochemistry and pharmacology, to lay ground for fully elucidating the potential mechanisms of Herba Cistanches’ anti-aging effect and promote its clinical application as an anti-aging herbal medicine.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.