Localising Gene Therapies?

[Jarrad]

Hey Guys

Unsure if this is an appropriate place to ask, if not, please refer me elsewhere more suited.

I have been reading a handful of papers on optogenetics, one of them went into the "leakage" of the adenovirus therapy, showing that whilst the target zone was predominantly affected, expression was found in other organs in the body, marginally.

Say, hypothetically, if I wanted to target Merkel cells in a specific region of a skin tissue sample, is there any methods to specifically target them without affecting other Merkel cells? They aren't too deep in the tissue so maybe some topical treatment is possible?
Or some kind of treated skin graft?

Oh and don't worry I know this is diybio, I don't actually expect to be carrying out this experiment (especially not in my garage :D) I really would like some help to see if this is possible

Thanks!

[Mega [Andreas Stuermer]]

Hi! Why not use a promoter which only works in those cells? Then the DNA arrives in some unwanted cells, but will be nor transcribed -> some more junk DNA

[Mega [Andreas Stuermer]]

Btw,

Adenoviruses can trigger an immune response. Better use Adeno-Associated virus.

Just hypothetically speaking

On Wednesday, July 23, 2014 3:32:54 AM UTC+2, Jarrad wrote:

[Jarrad]

Yes, sorry Adeno-Associated is what I meant :)  and most of the optogenetic Adeno-Associated treatments do exactly what you propose, but if you're targeting Merkel cells, they are all over the epidermis, so not entirely localised to a certain area.

[Mega [Andreas Stuermer]]

In theory it should be possible to make the AAV attach specifically to a special surface marker. Disrupt their normal attachment proteins.

So it can only infect your target cells. I think this has never been done though

On Wednesday, July 23, 2014 3:32:54 AM UTC+2, Jarrad wrote: