An AAV capsid targets excitatory neurons rather than microglia
Capsid AAV-MG1.2 tool was developed to mediate specific microglial transduction.
But, the researchers in this study demonstrate excitatory neuronal tropism of the AAV capsid AAVMG1.2, including hippocampal formation and visual cortex and does not confer expression in microglia or astrocytes in vivo.
The authors also show that AAV-MG1.2 specifically labels the deep layer of the CA1 pyramidal layer and demonstrate that AAV-MG1.2-Cre can be used to genetically target excitatory neurons for cell-type-specific neural circuit mapping studies.
Thus, AAV-MG1.2 shows great promise for expanding our genetic toolset to target excitatory neurons across different species.
https://www.cell.com/cell-reports-methods/fulltext/S2667-2375(25)00090-6
