Viral approaches to study the mammalian brain: Lineage tracing, circuit dissection and therapeutic applications

• Published in: Journal of neuroscience methods Vol. 335; p. 108629
• Main Authors: Cong, Wei, Shi, Yun, Qi, Yanqing, Wu, Jinyun, Gong, Ling, He, Miao
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Netherlands Elsevier B.V 01.04.2020
• Subjects: Cell type; Circuit mapping; Gene delivery; Gene therapy; Lineage tracing; Virus; Virus; Gene delivery; Gene therapy; Lineage tracing; Cell type; Circuit mapping
• ISSN: 0165-0270; 1872-678X
• DOI: 10.1016/j.jneumeth.2020.108629

•Recombinant viruses are powerful tools for gene delivery to the nervous system.•Different research and therapeutic applications call for different viral features.•Barcoded viral libraries support multiplex lineage and axonal tracing.•Rapid expanding viral toolkit facilitates basic and translational researches. Viral vectors are widely used to study the development, function and pathology of neural circuits in the mammalian brain. Their flexible payloads with customizable choices of tool genes allow versatile applications ranging from lineage tracing, circuit mapping and functional interrogation, to translational and therapeutic applications. Different applications have distinct technological requirements, therefore, often utilize different types of virus. This review introduces the most commonly used viruses for these applications and some recent advances in improving the resolution and throughput of lineage tracing, the efficacy and selectivity of circuit tracing and the specificity of cell type targeting.