Developing a trans-multisynaptic tracer to map the neural circuit of recovered sciatic nerve after treatment with nerve growth factor.
Hongjun Mei, Junfeng Tan, You Hu, Xiangwei Shi, Yang Liu, Fan Jia, Fuqiang Xu
Author Information
Hongjun Mei: Department of Orthopaedics, The Fifth hospital of Wuhan, Wuhan 430050, China.
Junfeng Tan: Department of Orthopaedics, The Fifth hospital of Wuhan, Wuhan 430050, China.
You Hu: Innovation Academy for Precision Measurement Science and Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Wuhan 430071, China.
Xiangwei Shi: Innovation Academy for Precision Measurement Science and Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Wuhan 430071, China.
Yang Liu: Department of Orthopaedics, The Fifth hospital of Wuhan, Wuhan 430050, China.
Fan Jia: Shenzhen-Hong Kong Institute of Brain Science, Shenzhen Institute of Advanced Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shenzhen 518055, China.
Fuqiang Xu: Innovation Academy for Precision Measurement Science and Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Wuhan 430071, China.
Nerve growth factor (NGF) has been shown to support the survival and differentiation of neurons. In this study, we first developed a retrograde trans-multisynaptic tracer PRV580 expressing the mCherry fluorescent protein based on pseudorabies virus Bartha strain to map the neural circuit of sciatic nerve. Secondly, the newly developed PRV580 was used to map the neural circuit of the recovering sciatic nerve upon treatment with NGF. Our results showed that red signals from PRV580 were observed in various brain regions. Among these regions, many areas of the pyramidal system and the extra-pyramidal system had been mapped, accounting for as much as 56.8 % of the total inputs. Furthermore, we found that NGF could significantly increase the ratio of total input (29.05 %) compared to PBS (3.65 %), indicating that NGF indeed can aid in the repair of injured sciatic nerve. These findings indicated that NGF has therapeutic ability for the treatment of peripheral nerve injuries and virus-based tracers can be used to monitor the recovery.
