Name: digital droplet pcr method for the quantification of aav transduction efficiency in murine retina
Uploaded: 2021-12-25T14:00:00
Description: Watch this Scientific Journal Video about Digital Droplet PCR Method for the Quantification of AAV Transduction Efficiency in Murine Retina at JoVE.com

We would like to thank Oezkan Keles, Josephine J&#252;ttner, and Prof. Botond Roska, Institute of Molecular and Clinical Ophthalmology Basel, Complex Viruses Platform for their help and support for AAV production. We also would like to thank Prof. Jean Bennett, Perelman School of Medicine, the University of Pennsylvania for the AAV8/BP2 strain. Animal work is performed at the Gebze Technical University animal facility. For that, we thank Leyla Dikmetas and Prof. Uygar Halis Tazebay for technical assistance and support for animal husbandry. We also would like to thank Dr. Fatma Ozdemir for her comments on the manuscript. This work is supported by TUBITAK, grant numbers 118C226 and 121N275, and Sabanci University Integration grant.

All experimental protocols were accepted by the Sabanci University ethics committee and experiments were conducted in accordance with the statement of &#39;The Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology&#39; for the use of animals in research
1. Small scale AAV production12
<ol>
	<li>Culture HEK293T cells using 15 cm plates in complete 10 mL of DMEM/10% FBS until 70-80% confluency.</li>
	<li>Prepare the transfection mixture with 20 &#181;g o...

<ol>
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In this protocol, we generated two AAV vectors that have different capsid proteins and then titered them accordingly. One of the most crucial steps of this protocol is to produce sufficient amounts of AAVs that will yield detectable reporter expression after the transduction12,13. 
Titering of AAVs is also an important factor to adjust dosages of AAV for intravitreal injections. Once these important criteria are achieved, it is feasi...

Adeno associated viruses (AAVs) are now commonly used for a variety of retinal gene therapy studies. AAVs provide a safe and efficient way of gene delivery with less immunogenicity and fewer genome integrations. AAV entry into the target cell occurs through endocytosis, which requires binding of receptors and co-receptors on the cell surface1,2. Therefore, the transduction efficiency of AAVs for different cell types depends mainly on the capsid and its interactions with the host cell receptors. AAVs have serotypes and each serotype can have distinct cellular/tissue tropisms and transduction efficiencies. There are also artificial AAV serotypes and variants generated by chemical modification of the virus capsid, production of hybrid capsids, peptide insertion, capsid shuffling, directed evolution, and rational mutagenesis3. Even minor changes in amino acid sequence or capsid structure can have an influence on interactions with host cell factors and result in different tropisms4. In addition to capsid variants, other factors like injection route and batch-to-batch variation of AAV production can affect the transduction efficiency of AAVs in the neuronal retina. Therefore, reliable methods for the comparison of transduction rates for different variants are necessary.
The majority of the methods for determining AAV transduction efficiency rely on reporter gene expression. These include fluorescent imaging, immunohistochemistry, western blot, or histochemical analysis of the reporter gene product5,6,7. However, due to the size constraint of AAVs, it is not always feasible to include reporter genes to monitor the transduction efficiency. Using strong promoters like the hybrid CMV enhancer/chicken beta-actin or Woodchuck hepatitis post-transcriptional regulatory element (WPRE) as an mRNA stabilizer sequence further complicates the size problem8. Therefore, it will also be beneficial to define the transduction rate of injected AAVs with a more direct methodology.
Digital droplet PCR (dd-PCR) is a powerful technique to quantify target DNA from minute amounts of samples. dd-PCR technology depends on encapsulation of the target DNA and PCR reaction mixture by oil droplets. Each dd-PCR reaction contains thousands of droplets. Each droplet is processed and analyzed as an independent PCR reaction9. Analysis of droplets enables calculating the absolute copy number of target DNA molecules in any sample by simply using the Poisson algorithm. Since the transduction efficiency of the AAVs is correlated with the copy number of AAV genomes in the neuronal retina, we used the dd-PCR method to quantify AAV genomes.
Here, we describe a dd-PCR methodology to calculate the transduction efficiency of AAV vectors from retinal genomic DNA6,10. First, AAVs that express tdTomato reporter were generated using the small scale protocol, and titered by the dd-PCR method11. Secondly, AAVs were intravitreally injected into the neuronal retina. To demonstrate the transduction efficiency, we first quantified tdTomato expression using fluorescent microscopy and ImageJ software. This was followed by the isolation of genomic DNA for the quantification of AAV genomes in injected retinas using dd-PCR. Comparison of tdTomato expression levels with the transduced AAV genomes quantified by the dd-PCR showed that the dd-PCR method accurately quantified the transduction efficiency of AAV vectors. Our protocols demonstrated a detailed description of a dd-PCR based methodology to quantify AAV transduction efficiencies. In this protocol, we also show the absolute number of AAV genomes that are transduced after intravitreal injections by simply using the dilution factor after genomic DNA isolation and the dd-PCR results. Overall, this protocol provides a powerful method, which would be an alternative to reporter expression to quantify transduction efficiencies of AAV vectors in the retina.

<table border="1" fo:keep-together.within-page="1" fo:keep-with-next.within-page="always">
	<tbody>
		<tr>
			<td>96-Well Semi-Skirted ddPCR plates</td>
			<td>BioRad</td>
			<td>12001925</td>
			<td>ddPCR</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Amicon Filter</td>
			<td>Millipore</td>
			<td>UFC910096</td>
			<td>AAV</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>C1000 TOUCH 96 DEEP WELLS</td>
			<td>BioRad</td>
			<td>1851197</td>
			<td>ddPCR</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>C57BL/6JRj mice strain</td>
			<td>Janvier</td>
			<td>C57BL/6JRj</td>
			<td>Mice</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>DG8 gaskets</td>
			<td>BioRad</td>
			<td>1863009</td>
			<td>ddPCR</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>DG8 Cartridges</td>
			<td>BioRad</td>
			<td>1864008</td>
			<td>ddPCR</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>DMEM</td>
			<td>Lonza</td>
			<td>BE12-604Q</td>
			<td>AAV</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>DPBS</td>
			<td>PAN BIOTECH</td>
			<td>L 1825</td>
			<td>AAV</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Droplet generation oil eva green</td>
			<td>BioRad</td>
			<td>1864006</td>
			<td>ddPCR</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Droplet reader oil</td>
			<td>BioRad</td>
			<td>1863004</td>
			<td>ddPCR</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>FBS</td>
			<td>PAN BIOTECH</td>
			<td>p30-3306</td>
			<td>AAV</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Foil seals for PX1 PCR Plate sealer</td>
			<td>BioRad</td>
			<td>1814040</td>
			<td>ddPCR</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Insulin Syringes</td>
			<td>BD Medical</td>
			<td>320933</td>
			<td>Intravitreal injection</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Isoflurane</td>
			<td>ADEKA <img alt="Equation 2" src="/files/ftp_upload/63038/63038eq02v2.jpg" />LA&#199; SANAY<img alt="Equation 2" src="/files/ftp_upload/63038/63038eq02v2.jpg" /> VE T<img alt="Equation 2" src="/files/ftp_upload/63038/63038eq02v2.jpg" />CARET A.<img alt="Equation 1" src="/files/ftp_upload/63038/63038eq01v2.jpg" />.</td>
			<td>N01AB06</td>
			<td>anesthetic</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Microinjector MM33</td>
			<td>World Precision Instruments</td>
			<td>82-42-101-0000</td>
			<td>Intravitreal injection</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Micron IV</td>
			<td>Phoenix Research Labs</td>
			<td>Micron IV</td>
			<td>Microscopy system based on 3-CCD color camera, frame grabber, and off-the-shelf software enables researchers to image mouse retinas.</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Mydfrin (%2.5 phenylephrine hydrochloride)</td>
			<td>Alcon</td>
			<td>S01FB01</td>
			<td>pupil dilation</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Nanofil Syringe 10 &#956;l</td>
			<td>World Precision Instruments</td>
			<td>NANOFIL</td>
			<td>Intravitreal injection</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Needle RN G36, 25 mm, PST 2</td>
			<td>World Precision Instruments</td>
			<td>NF36BL-2</td>
			<td>Intravitreal injection</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>PEI-MAX</td>
			<td>Polyscience</td>
			<td>24765-1</td>
			<td>AAV</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Penicillin-Streptomycin</td>
			<td>PAN BIOTECH</td>
			<td>P06-07100</td>
			<td>AAV</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Plasmid pHGT1-Adeno1</td>
			<td>PlasmidFactory</td>
			<td>PF1236</td>
			<td>AAV</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Pluronic F-68</td>
			<td>Gibco</td>
			<td>24040032</td>
			<td>AAV</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>PX1 PCR Plate Sealer system</td>
			<td>BioRad</td>
			<td>1814000</td>
			<td>ddPCR</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>QX200 ddPCR EvaGreen Supermix</td>
			<td>BioRad</td>
			<td>1864034</td>
			<td>ddPCR</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>QX200 Droplet Reader/QX200 Droplet Generator</td>
			<td>BioRad</td>
			<td>1864001</td>
			<td>ddPCR</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>SPLITTER FORCEP WATCHER 
			MAKER - LENGTH = 13.5 CM</td>
			<td>endostall medical</td>
			<td>EJN-160-0155</td>
			<td>Retina isolation</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Steril Syringe Filter</td>
			<td>AISIMO</td>
			<td>ASF33PS22S</td>
			<td>AAV</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Tissue Genomic DNA Kit</td>
			<td>EcoSpin</td>
			<td>E1070</td>
			<td>gDNA isolation</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Tobradex (0.3% tobramycin / 0.1% dexamethasone)</td>
			<td>Alcon</td>
			<td>S01CA01</td>
			<td>anti-inflammatory / antibiotic</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Tropamid (% 0.5 tropicamide)</td>
			<td>Bilim <img alt="Equation 2" src="/files/ftp_upload/63038/63038eq02v2.jpg" />la&#231; Sanayi ve Ticaret A.<img alt="Equation 1" src="/files/ftp_upload/63038/63038eq01v2.jpg" />.</td>
			<td>S01FA06</td>
			<td>pupil dilation</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Turbonuclease</td>
			<td>Accelagen</td>
			<td>N0103L</td>
			<td>AAV</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Viscotears (carbomer 2 mg/g)</td>
			<td>Bausch+Lomb</td>
			<td>S01XA20</td>
			<td>lubricant eye drop</td>
		</tr>
	</tbody>
</table>

digital droplet pcr method for the quantification of aav transduction efficiency in murine retina

Many retinal cell biology laboratories now routinely use Adeno-associated viruses (AAVs) for gene editing and regulatory applications. The efficiency of AAV transduction is usually critical, which affects the overall experimental outcomes. One of the main determinants for transduction efficiency is the serotype or variant of the AAV vector. Currently, various artificial AAV serotypes and variants are available with different affinities to host cell surface receptors. For retinal gene therapy, this results in varying degrees of transduction efficiencies for different retinal cell types. In addition, the injection route and the quality of AAV production may also affect the retinal AAV transduction efficiencies. Therefore, it is essential to compare the efficiency of different variants, batches, and methodologies. The digital droplet PCR (dd-PCR) method quantifies the nucleic acids with high precision and allows performing absolute quantification of a given target without any standard or a reference. Using dd-PCR, it is also feasible to assess the transduction efficiencies of AAVs by absolute quantification of AAV genome copy numbers within an injected retina. Here, we provide a straightforward method to quantify the transduction rate of AAVs in retinal cells using dd-PCR. With minor modifications, this methodology can also be the basis for the copy number quantification of mitochondrial DNA as well as assessing the efficiency of base editing, critical for several retinal diseases and gene therapy applications.

Small scale AAV production is a fast and efficient method that provides vectors for intravitreal injections (Figure 1). Small scale AAV production usually gives titers within the range of 1 x 1012 GC/ml which is sufficient to detect reporter expression in the retina (Figure 2). Titering of AAV using dd-PCR gives consistent results. ITR2 and WPRE specific primers are routinely used and the starting concentration of each target molecule was calculated w...

Watch this Scientific Journal Video about Digital Droplet PCR Method for the Quantification of AAV Transduction Efficiency in Murine Retina at JoVE.com

Digital Droplet PCR Method for the Quantification of AAV Transduction Efficiency in Murine Retina

This protocol presents how to quantify AAV transduction efficiency in mouse retina using digital droplet PCR (dd-PCR) together with small scale AAV production, intravitreal injection, retinal imaging, and retinal genomic DNA isolation.

Many retinal cell biology laboratories now routinely use Adeno-associated viruses (AAVs) for gene editing and regulatory applications. The efficiency of ...

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