Concurrent to the exploration of Adeno-Associated Virus (AAV) used in clinical trials, optogenetics has been rapidly developing as a promising tool in cardiac electrophysiology research. Optogenetics depends on the genetic modification of cells and tissues to induce the expression of light-sensitive opsins for precise bi-directional control of activity. The technique allows for functional manipulation of target cells/tissues with high specificity through genetic modification, in addition to the superior spatiotemporal resolution afforded by optical means. Consequently, the field of optogenetics requires highly efficient transgene delivery vehicles for cardiac applications. Such virally mediated optogenetic manipulations are “scalable” since they permit the parallel investigation of many cells in vitro for high-throughput all-optical cardiac electrophysiology and allow cardiac applications in vivo across different animal species, beyond the common mouse transgenic models.

Besides, vectors derived from AAVs are currently the most promising vehicles for gene delivery to the neural retina. More importantly, subretinal administration of AAVs has been proved to be safe and effective in patients in a number of clinical trials supporting the clinical relevance of this vector. The safety aspects of AAV as a vector are further strengthened by the great versatility of AAV as a vector platform providing many opportunities to engineer this virus to suit particular applications. As there are a large number of naturally occurring AAVs with unique transduction characteristics useful for targeting different cell types, the applications of AAVs grew rapidly in the retina. Sub-retinally delivered naturally occurring AAV serotypes are able to deliver genes to diverse cell types including epithelium, glia, and many types of neurons. This continuous and creative development of AAV vectors provided opportunities to overcome existing challenges in retinal gene therapy.

Our Optogenetics AAV Production Service

QVirus™ Platform has launched a comprehensive AAV packaging service combined with optogenetics. These optogenetics AAV can help researchers monitor and control the activities of individual neurons in living tissue, and precisely measure the manipulation effects in real-time.

Alternative optogenetics gene: Cre, eNpHR3.0, Arch3.0, hChR2 (H134R), hCHETA, hM3D (Gq), hM4D (Gi), Gcamp6s, DTR, Gcamp6f, DTA, etc.

Alternative promoter: CMV - General and strong, CAG - General and strong, CamKII - Neuron specific, Syn - Neuron specific, GFAP - Astrocyte specific, etc.