KU Leuven and Leuven Institute for Neuroscience and Disease (LIND)

2 ARTICLES PUBLISHED IN JoVE

Education

Metabolic Labeling of Leucine Rich Repeat Kinases 1 and 2 with Radioactive Phosphate

Jean-Marc Taymans¹, Fangye Gao¹, Veerle Baekelandt¹

¹Laboratory for Neurobiology and Gene Therapy, Department of Neurosciences, KU Leuven and Leuven Institute for Neuroscience and Disease (LIND)

Leucine rich repeat kinases 1 and 2 (LRRK1 and LRRK2) are multidomain proteins which encode both GTPase and kinase domains and which are phosphorylated in cells. Here, we present a protocol to label LRRK1 and LRRK2 in cells with ³²P orthophosphate, thereby providing a means to measure their overall cellular phophorylation levels.

Medicine

Development of an Alpha-synuclein Based Rat Model for Parkinson's Disease via Stereotactic Injection of a Recombinant Adeno-associated Viral Vector

Anke Van der Perren¹, Cindy Casteels², Koen Van Laere², Rik Gijsbers^3,4, Chris Van den Haute^1,4, Veerle Baekelandt¹

¹Laboratory for Neurobiology and Gene Therapy, Department of Neurosciences, KU Leuven, ²Division of Nuclear Medicine, Leuven University Hospital - KU Leuven, ³Laboratory for Molecular Virology and Gene Therapy, Department of Pharmaceutical and Pharmacological Sciences, KU Leuven, ⁴Leuven Viral Vector Core, KU Leuven

This manuscript describes how viral vector-mediated local gene delivery provides an attractive way to express transgenes in the central nervous system. The protocol outlines all crucial steps to perform a viral vector injection in the substantia nigra of the rat to develop a viral vector-based animal model for Parkinson's disease.