Herpes Simplex Virus (HSV) for Neuronal Tracing

Herpes simplex virus (HSV), based on the H129 strain, has been widely used as an anterograde tracer. After adding the modified HSV with fluorescent protein, it can be used not only to efficiently label the connections between different brain regions, but also can label the connections between peripheral and central.

Thymidine nucleotide kinase (TK) is an essential component for HSV replication after infection of nerve cells. In the presence of TK, HSV can replicate and express the target gene in the cell, and its progeny virus will transport to the synapse, and then crosses the synapse into the downstream neuron, so as to realize multisynaptic tracing. When removed TK (TK-deleted), HSV-ΔTK can infect neurons, but can't replicate. We know that only viruses that can replicate have the ability to cross synapses, so HSV-ΔTK can't cross the synapses. However, if we provide AAV virus as a helper to express TK protein fist, the HSV-ΔTK can realize anterograde monosynaptic tracing.

Advantages
· Fast and high efficiency
· Strong background in neuronal tracing tool
· Hypotoxicity and strong signal
· The most competitive price

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Background

The neuronal connectivity by different synapses forms the brain's complex activities. So developing the technology to dissect the brain circuits became urgent in neuroscience to understand the brain functions. Currently, techniques for studying brain circuits include conventional tracers and recombinant viral vectors. The conventional tracers like CTB, HRP, PHA-L, BDAs and so on, but they have some disadvantages, such as:
1) Cell specificity cannot be achieved.
2) Efficiency is not stable.
3) The circuits of the neurons at multiple step of synaptic connections cannot be realized.

However, due to the ability to efficiently enter cells and deliver a variety of gene, genetically engineered recombinant viral vectors emerged as powerful tools for visualizing neural connectivity. The commonly used neurotropic virus, such as HSV (Herpes simplex virus type 1), VSV (Vesicular stomatitis virus), PRV (pseudorabies virus) and RABV (rabies virus) can cross synapse from one cell to another, if we provide the protein that used for replicate. In addition, there are also SFV (mark the fine morphology of in-situ neurons) and AAV viruses(as a helper virus to express exogenous genes or as a monosynaptic tracer with serotypes 1) that are used for neuronal tracing.