Lentiviral-Mediated Delivery of Bcl-2 or GDNF Protects against Excitotoxicity in the Rat Hippocampus

Nutrient deprivation during ischemia leads to severe insult to neurons causing widespread excitotoxic damage in specific brain regions such as the hippocampus. One possible strategy for preventing neurodegeneration is to express therapeutic proteins in the brain to protect against excitotoxicity. We investigated the utility of equine infectious anemia virus (EIAV)-based vectors as genetic tools for delivery of therapeutic proteins in an in vivo excitotoxicity model. The efficacy of these vectors at preventing cellular loss in target brain areas following excitotoxic insult was also assessed. EIAV vectors generated to overexpress the human antiapoptotic Bcl-2 or growth factor glial-derived neurotrophic factor (GDNF) genes protected against glutamate-induced toxicity in cultured hippocampal neurons. In an in vivo excitotoxicity model, adult Wistar rats received a unilateral dose of the glutamate receptor agonist N-methyl-d-aspartate to the hippocampus that induced a large lesion in the CA1 region. Neuronal loss could not be protected by prior transduction of a control vector expressing β-galactosidase. In contrast, EIAV-mediated expression of Bcl-2 and GDNF significantly reduced lesion size thus protecting the hippocampus from excitotoxic damage. These results demonstrate that EIAV vectors can be effectively used to deliver putative neuroprotective genes to target brain areas and prevent cellular loss in the event of a neurological insult. Therefore these lentiviral vectors provide potential therapeutic tools for use in cases of acute neurotrauma such as cerebral ischemia.