This article describes a protocol for the manipulation of molecular targets in the cerebral cortex using adeno-associated viruses and for monitoring the effects of this manipulation during wakefulness and sleep using electrocorticographic recordings.
The use of electrocorticographic (ECoG) recordings in rodents is relevant to sleep research and to the study of a wide range of neurological conditions. Adeno-associated viruses (AAVs) are increasingly used to improve understanding of brain circuits and their functions. The AAV-mediated manipulation of specific cell populations and/or of precise molecular components has been tremendously useful to identify new sleep regulatory circuits/molecules and key proteins contributing to the adverse effects of sleep loss. For instance, inhibiting activity of the filamentous actin-severing protein cofilin using AAV prevents sleep deprivation-induced memory impairment. Here, a protocol is described that combines the manipulation of cofilin function in a cerebral cortex area with the recording of ECoG activity to examine whether cortical cofilin modulates the wakefulness and sleep ECoG signals. AAV injection is performed during the same surgical procedure as the implantation of ECoG and electromyographic (EMG) electrodes in adult male and female mice. Mice are anesthetized, and their heads are shaved. After skin cleaning and incision, stereotaxic coordinates of the motor cortex are determined, and the skull is pierced at this location. A cannula prefilled with an AAV expressing cofilinS3D, an inactive form of cofilin, is slowly positioned in the cortical tissue. After AAV infusion, gold-covered screws (ECoG electrodes) are screwed through the skull and cemented to the skull with gold wires inserted in the neck muscles (EMG electrodes). The animals are allowed three weeks to recover and to ensure sufficient expression of cofilinS3D. The infected area and cell type are verified using immunohistochemistry, and the ECoG is analyzed using visual identification of vigilance states and spectral analysis. In summary, this combined methodological approach allows the investigation of the precise contribution of molecular components regulating neuronal morphology and connectivity to the regulation of synchronized cerebral cortex activity during wakefulness and sleep.
Electroencephalographic (or generally electrocorticographic [ECoG] in rodents) and electromyographic (EMG) recordings are extensively used in sleep research as well as more broadly in neuroscience, neurology, and psychiatry. In combination, these electrophysiological signals allow for the identification of vigilance states and the subsequent quantification of state duration and spectral composition, both in humans and rodents1,2,3,4. Such quantification has been useful to understand how sleep is modified in pathological conditions such as neurodegenerative diseases and models5,6,7 or by genetic modification8,9. For instance, the knockout (KO) of different genes linked to neuronal communication was shown to change the duration of wakefulness and sleep in both the mouse and fruit fly10,11,12,13. To tackle potential developmental compensation arising from the study of full-body KO in rodents and to allow for a finer control of genetic manipulation, an efficient way to manipulate gene expression is to use adeno-associated viruses (AAVs). An AAV-mediated genetic manipulation can be used to down- or upregulate a given molecular target and to restrict the manipulation to a specific cell population using different types of promoters14. AAVs are also extensively used as a delivery method in the clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats (CRISPR)/Cas9 technology15,16. These methodologies allow for better temporal and spatial control of genetic manipulation, which is generally associated with the expression of a reporter permitting quantification of the infected area using immunofluorescence.
AAVs also represent the main vector for cell type-specific manipulations of neuronal activity via optogenetics and chemogenetics17,18,19, which have been widely used in recent research on neurodegenerative diseases, behavior, cognition, and sleep20,21,22. In sleep research, the application of optogenetics for the activation or inhibition of certain brain regions, such as the basal forebrain, hypothalamus, and sublaterodorsal tegmentum, has been useful to determine their roles in the control of arousal, slow-wave sleep (also known as non-rapid eye movement sleep), paradoxical sleep (or rapid eye movement sleep), and cataplexy23,24,25. Furthermore, AAV-mediated manipulations have helped elucidate important sleep regulatory circuits and molecules contributing to the adverse effects of sleep loss26,27,28. For instance, one protein shown to be implicated in sleep deprivation-induced memory impairment is cofilin29,30. This protein is a filamentous actin-severing protein that participates in the reorganization of actin filaments by physically binding to actin and promoting the disassembly of the filaments in a dynamic manner31. Inhibiting cofilin activity using an AAV-mediated approach was shown to prevent spine loss as well as synaptic plasticity and memory deficits induced by sleep deprivation in mice29. Collectively, these studies emphasize the usefulness and relevance of AAV-mediated manipulations to understand sleep regulation and the consequences of sleep deprivation in rodents.
Here, a protocol is described that combines ECoG and EMG electrode implantation and recording with the manipulation of cofilin function in a cerebral cortex area of wild-type (WT) mice using an AAV. More precisely, an AAV (serotype 9) expressing the coding sequence of a phosphomimetic form of the mouse cofilin (cofilinS3D), rendering it inactive32,33, is injected in the motor cortex (M1 and M2). An ECoG electrode is implanted directly at the injection site to ensure recording of the synchronized cortical activity of the infected cells. The ECoG/EMG recording is conducted for 24 h under undisturbed conditions three weeks after surgery to allow for recovery, adaptation, and high cofilinS3D expression. The recording is then used for the identification of vigilance states and ECoG spectral analysis, as described in previous studies11,34. This methodology can specifically reveal how cortical cofilin modulates wakefulness and sleep ECoG signals in mice. This combination of electrophysiological recordings and AAV-mediated genetic manipulation is particularly relevant to investigate the roles of various molecular elements in specific brain functions and could be applied to cortical (and subcortical) brain area(s) of interest in WT and genetically modified mice of both sexes and even other species.
All methods were approved by the Comité d'éthique de l'expérimentation animale of the Recherche CIUSSS-NIM and are in accordance with guidelines of the Canadian Council on Animal Care. See the Table of Materials for reagents, equipment, and materials used in this protocol.
1. Surgery preparation
2. Intracortical AAV injection with a syringe pump
NOTE: Perform all the following steps with sterilized instruments and in a clean environment. Use 70% ethanol to further wash sterilized instruments and to wash electrodes prepared in section 1.1 as well as anchor screws (non-gold-covered screws) before beginning the surgery.
3. ECoG/EMG electrode implantation
4. Recordings
After electrophysiological recordings, immunofluorescence is used to define the area infected by the AAV injection and to validate the expression of cofilinS3D (Figure 2). Immunostaining can be performed using a methodology similar to what has been described previously29,37,38,39. The AAV expresses an inactive form of cofilin fused with a hemagglutinin (HA)-Tag (cofilinS3D-HA), which is detected by immunofluorescence using an anti-HA antibody and a secondary antibody (Alexa Fluor 488). The infected excitatory neurons (here, targeted with a calcium/calmodulin-dependent protein kinase II alpha [CamKIIα] promoter controlling the expression of the transgene contained in the AAV) are stained with the anti-HA antibody. A successful infection is indicated by the staining of the neurons in the motor cortex surrounding the injection site (Figure 2A,B). In this representative example, the cerebral cortex of the other hemisphere did not show any noticeable staining. Nonetheless, given that excitatory neurons can project to distant brain areas, staining in the contralateral hemisphere is not necessarily an indication of unsuccessful injection. Higher magnification of the infected area showed staining of cell bodies and projections, confirming that only specific cells of the targeted cortical area were infected (Figure 2C).
Co-staining with markers of excitatory neurons (e.g., vesicular glutamate transporter 1, CaMKIIα) can also be performed to validate cell type-specificity. Alternatively, co-staining with markers of inhibitory neurons or astrocytes can be performed in case these cells are targeted using different promoters. Co-staining of cofilinS3D-HA and CaMKIIα was also performed in the same animal for an area more posterior to the injection site that still showed anti-HA staining in the motor cortex (Figure 2D). The higher magnification image of the area shows cells clearly expressing cofilinS3D-HA (Alexa Fluor 488, Figure 2E) and CaMKIIα (Alexa Fluor 568, Figure 2F). The superposition of the cofilinS3D-HA and CaMKIIα staining reveals that most (if not all) cells stained for cofilinS3D-HA are also positive for CaMKIIα (Figure 2G). This observation supports the specificity of the infection for excitatory neurons.
To assess the impact of cofilin manipulation on ECoG activity, ECoG and EMG signals are used to perform a visual identification of vigilance states (wakefulness, slow wave sleep, paradoxical sleep). This is done on 4-s epochs because of the rapid change in vigilance state in the mouse2, and here, for a full 24-h recording. Standard analyses include computation of sleep architecture and spectral analysis variables, as conducted previously for different datasets11,12,13,28,34. In particular, spectral analysis of the ECoG signal of the different states will index state composition and quality. To remove differences that could arise, for instance, from different depths of the electrodes, spectral analysis data can be expressed relative to the total power of all states of a given animal (Figure 3A). Given the very low relative amplitude of ECoG activity in higher frequencies, relative power spectra for wakefulness, slow wave sleep, and paradoxical sleep have been log-transformed to more adequately visualize and simultaneously compare the activity in low and high frequencies. This analysis indicates state-specific differences in spectral activity under conditions of cofilin inactivation (Figure 3B). More precisely, these preliminary findings combining male and female mice point out that cofilin inactivation significantly increases spectral power in fast frequencies (14-30 Hz) during wakefulness and in slow frequencies (1-4 Hz) during paradoxical sleep, while leaving ECoG activity during slow-wave sleep mainly unaffected. In addition, cofilin inactivation appears to increase inter-mouse variability in ECoG activity (particularly noticeable from error bars for wakefulness in Figure 3B).
Figure 1: Preparation of ECoG/EMG montage components and representative example of ECoG electrode placement. (A) An ECoG electrode: a 4 mm long, 0.2 mm diameter gold wire (non-insulated) is fused on the head of a gold-covered screw (1.9 mm head diameter, 1.14 mm thread major diameter, 3.6 mm total length) using lead-free solder. (B) EMG electrodes: two gold wires (1.5 and 2 cm) are curved to embrace the curve of the skull up to the neck muscle, and the other end is kept straight to be soldered to the connector. (C) A 6-channel connector: lead-free solder is added to 5 of the 6 metal pins (omitting one in the middle) of the connector (5 mm x 8 mm x 8 mm + 3 mm metal pins). The top of the connector is covered with tape to avoid litter/water infiltration. (D) Example of the positioning of the three maintenance screws on the skull of the left hemisphere and of the three ECoG electrodes (including a reference electrode) on the right hemisphere. The precise stereotaxic coordinates of the ECoG electrodes are indicated in steps 2.6 and 3.2 and have been calculated according to the location of the bregma and lambda (which are indicated by the yellow dots). Abbreviations: ECoG = electrocorticographic; EMG = electromyographic. Please click here to view a larger version of this figure.
Figure 2: Representative immunostaining to define the AAV-infected area and cell type. (A) Schematic representation showing the injection site of the coronal slice presented in panel B. The position is 1.1 mm anterior to the bregma, and the cannula (shown in red) was targeted to layers V of the right primary motor cortex (M1). Representation modified from Franklin and Paxinos40. (B) Immunostaining of HA to detect cofilinS3D-HA expression in neurons shown for a coronal slice of the full brain located approximately 1.1 mm anterior to the bregma. The infected area mainly localizes to layers V and VI (infragranular layers) of the right primary and secondary motor cortices (M1 and M2). Scale bar = 500 µm. The square represents the area shown in C. (C) Higher magnification of the infected area showing staining of infected cells and confirming expression of cofilinS3D-HA in deeper layers of the motor cortex. Scale bar = 100 µm. (D) Co-immunostaining of HA and CaMKIIα to assess cell type-specificity shown for a coronal slice of the right hemisphere located approximately 0.5 mm anterior to bregma and therefore, posterior to the injection site (same mouse as in panels B and C). The infected area localizes to motor cortices (M1 and mainly M2). Scale bar = 500 µm. The square represents the area shown in E, F, and G. (E) Higher magnification of the infected area showing staining of infected cells and confirming expression of cofilinS3D-HA. Scale bar = 100 µm. (F) Higher magnification of the infected area showing staining of CaMKIIα-positive cells. Scale bar = 100 µm. (G) Higher magnification of the infected area showing co-labeling of cofilinS3D-HA and CaMKIIα, confirming that infected cells are CaMKIIα-positive. Scale bar = 100 µm. Abbreviations: AAV = adeno-associated virus; M1 = primary motor cortex; M2 = secondary motor cortex; CPu = caudate putamen (striatum); LV = lateral ventricle; HA= hemagglutinin; CamKIIα = calcium/calmodulin-dependent protein kinase II alpha. Please click here to view a larger version of this figure.
Figure 3: Representative power spectra for wakefulness, slow wave sleep, and paradoxical sleep obtained after viral manipulation of cofilin function. Male (n = 5 per group) and female (n = 2 per group) mice injected with AAV9-CaMKIIα0.4-cofilinS3D-HA (viral titer 2.58 × 1013 GC/mL) or with a control AAV (AAV9-CaMKIIα0.4-eGFP 1.25 × 1013 GC/mL; half of the test titer to control for the enhanced signal of this control AAV) in layer V of the motor cortex were recorded for 24 h, and the electrocorticographic signal was subjected to spectral analysis (fast Fourier Transform to calculate spectral power between 0.5 and 30 Hz with a 0.25-Hz resolution). (A) Power spectra during the three vigilance states expressed relative to total power of all states. (B) Relative power spectra log-transformed to more adequately represent group differences in higher frequencies. The suppression of cofilin activity in the motor cortex using AAV9-CaMKIIα0.4-cofilinS3D-HA significantly increases electrocorticographic activity in the beta range (14-30 Hz) during wakefulness, and in the delta range (1-4 Hz) during paradoxical sleep in comparison to control injections (red lines above x axes indicate Mann-Whitney U-test on frequency band power p < 0.05). Abbreviations: AAV = adeno-associated virus GC = genome copies; HA= hemagglutinin; CamKIIα = calcium/calmodulin-dependent protein kinase II alpha; eGFP = enhanced green fluorescent protein. Please click here to view a larger version of this figure.
This protocol describes a precise and straightforward method to monitor ECoG and EMG activity during the manipulation of molecular targets using AAVs. For adequate between-group comparison, it is highly recommended to always plan surgical procedures (AAV injection and electrode implantation) on the same day for test and control animals, and to record their electrophysiological signals simultaneously. To obtain similar viral expression between the test and control animals, injecting the same viral titer is desirable. In the present case, viral titer of control AAV had been decreased to half of the test AAV to ensure similar viral expression. Experimenters should be very careful with measurements of stereotaxic coordinates to ensure low between-animal variability in brain area/cortical layer targeting. Additionally, given that the injection depth is calculated from the skull surface, and that skull thickness varies with age and sex, the placement of the cannula should always be verified using post-protocol histology or immunohistochemistry (e.g., Figure 2) to ensure adequate positioning/depth of injection, and the stereotaxic coordinates should be adjusted if necessary. Throughout the 40-min AAV injection, it is very important to monitor the injection speed to rapidly detect and correct potential issues such as pump blockage. Some experimental steps are also crucial to obtain optimal electrophysiological signals. For instance, do not overscrew during electrode implantation; screws should stick out of the skull by at least 2.5 mm to minimize damage to the cerebral cortex and the formation of a glial scar. Afterwards, it is also tremendously important to i) avoid applying cement to the extremities of the electrodes, ii) ensure a rapid soldering of the electrodes to the connector, and iii) make sure that there is no contact between the electrodes.
The procedure presented here for ECoG and EMG recording is extremely well established, simple, and widely used to monitor wakefulness and sleep in mice2,11,13,34. Continuous ECoG and EMG recordings can be performed for several consecutive days (and even weeks) and generate a very rich dataset that can be used to perform several lines of analysis comprising variables related to wakefulness and sleep amount and architecture2,11,12 (e.g., time spent in different states per light and dark periods, number of episodes of each state, 24-h distribution of sleep), wakefulness and sleep spectral content34,41 (e.g., power in different frequency bands [similar to Figure 3], scale-free activity), and characteristics of individual waves42,43,44 (e.g., slow-wave amplitude and slope). When used in combination with AAV-mediated molecular manipulations, an additional advantage is the avoidance of potential developmental compensation that can occur in transgenic animals. With practice, the whole procedure, including the 40-min AAV injection, can be performed in approximately 90 min. Mortality rate should be (very) low as the surgery is minimally invasive.
The simultaneous use of ECoG/EMG recording and targeted manipulation with AAV offers a variety of other advantages and applications. For instance, the precision of stereotaxic targeting, when adequately performed, is very high and replicable and is useful to determine the specific role of a given brain region (and/or a cell type or a molecular element within the region) in the regulation of sleep or other physiological processes. Several different cortical areas can thus be easily targeted using adaptations of the current protocol. Moreover, target manipulations using AAVs could be directed to a cortical/subcortical area different from the ECoG recording sites. In such cases, the burr hole for AAV injection could be covered by a small glass coverslip fixed using dental cement (or bone wax). For enhanced specificity, the AAV construction often includes a promoter that allows targeted infection of a precise cell type14. A CamKIIα promoter was used in the present protocol to specifically target excitatory pyramidal cells14,29,45of the motor cortex. This strategy has enabled the inactivation of cofilin (using cofilinS3D)32,33 in excitatory neurons of the motor cortex and the observation of state-specific changes in ECoG activity (Figure 3). To assess infection/transduction efficacy, future protocol users could combine the presented AAV-ECoG protocol with one of co-staining by immunofluorescence, and use high magnification images to calculate the number of cells showing double-labeling out of the total number of cells showing single-labeling of the target (here, CaMKIIα-expressing neurons). In a recent study, an AAV-ECoG method similar to the one described here was used to overexpress fragile X mental retardation syndrome-related protein 1 (FXR1) in all neurons of the motor cortex using an AAV containing a synapsin promoter and revealed an effect of this manipulation on vigilance state distribution and spectral content28. These findings illustrate how manipulating a given molecule in a target brain region using AAVs can reveal roles in the regulation of specific wakefulness/sleep parameters.
A limitation of the described protocol is the small lesion of brain tissue occurring with cannula placement before performing the AAV injection, which could also be accompanied by an inflammatory response. This could be of particular concern when performing AAV injection in subcortical areas and should always be tackled by using adequate controls. Alternatively, the current protocol could be followed by the quantification of reactive gliosis and/or of microglial activation (e.g., using immunofluorescence) to ensure similar levels in control and test groups and therefore, on the ECoG readout. A second limitation relates to the risk of bad connection between an electrode and the connector, which could result in a continuously or occasionally bad electrophysiological signal. Solidly screwed, soldered, and cemented electrodes will minimize the incidence of this issue. A third limitation is related to animals being tethered via the head montage during the recording, which could limit locomotion and other behaviors, at least to some extent, and occasionally result in cabling damage and signal loss. Finally, the presented protocol is more suitable for adult mice, given that the skull size of younger animals may cause difficulties in installing the depicted head montage, as described previously2.
Combined ECoG/EMG recording and AAV-mediated manipulation of a precise target is also applicable to research fields other than the neuroscience of sleep. Among others, it could be used to study and manipulate epileptic events in animal models of seizure and is a powerful tool to modulate brain oscillations involved in memory encoding and consolidation46,47. Accordingly, potential applications certainly encompass the fields of fundamental research in psychiatry and neurology, including neurodegenerative diseases. In addition to the capacity of expressing an inactive form of a molecule, AAVs can and have been used to overexpress or downregulate (e.g., small-interfering RNA, CRISPR/Cas9) or to rescue the expression of a molecule in a full-body KO. Importantly, the dual methodology of the current protocol is also applicable to other mammalian species such as rats and diurnal rodents that represent interesting models to understand both sleep and neurodegeneration48,49.
The work was funded by the Canada Research Chair in Sleep Molecular Physiology. The authors are thankful to Chloé Provost and Caroline Bouchard for technical help.
Name | Company | Catalog Number | Comments |
Surgery peparation | |||
21 G needle | Terumo | NN-2125R | |
6-channel connector | ENA AG | BPHF2-O6S-E-3.2 | Connector used in this manuscript, but discontinued. See potential replacement below |
Distrelec | 300-93-672 | Potential replacement for discontinued connector above | |
C57BL6/J mice | Jackson Laboratory | 000664 | B6 | Animals bred on site |
Pluronic F-68 | Non-ionic surfactant | ||
Gold wire 0.2 mm diameter | Delta scientific | 920-862-41 | Non-insulated |
Hamilton syringe (10 μL) | Fisher Scientific | 14815279 | |
Infusion syringe Pump CMA 402 | Harvard Apparatus | CMA8003110 | |
Injection cannula 28 G | Plastics one | C313l-SPCL | |
Isoflurane | Baxter | CA2L9100 | |
Ketamine (10 mg/mL) | SANDOZ | 4550 | |
Lead-free solder | AIM | SN100C | |
Lubricating ophthalmic ointment | ALLERGAN | 210889 | |
PE 50 Catheter thin wall | Plastics one | C232CT | |
Flat fillister head self tapping screws | MORRIS | FF00CE125 | ECoG electrode gold covered; Dimension : 1.9 mm head diameter, 1.14 mm thread major diameter, 3.6 mm length |
Soldering iron | Weller | WES51 | |
Syringe 1 mL | BD | 309659 | |
Trimmer | Harvard Apparatus | 72-9063 | |
Xylazine (20 mg/mL) | Bayer | 2169592 | |
Intracortical AAV injection with syringe pump | |||
0.7 mm drill bit | Dremel | 628 | |
AAV9-CaMKIIα0.4-cofilinS3D-HA | UPenn Viral Core | ||
AAV9-CaMKIIα0.4-eGFP | UPenn Viral Core | ||
Cotton tippped applicators | Medicom | 806 | |
Drill | Dremel | 8050-N/18 | |
Extra-fine Graefe forceps | Fine science tools | 11150-10 | |
Stereotaxic arm | Stoelting | 51604U | |
Stereotaxic frame | Stoelting | 51600 | |
Surgical clamps | Fine science tools | 18050-28 | |
Tissue scissor | Magna Stainless | M4-124 | |
ECoG/EMG electrode implantation | |||
Buprenorphine (0.3 mg/mL) | CEVA | 57133-02 | |
Curved forceps | Fine science tools | 11001-12 | |
Delicate task wipers | Kimtech | 34120 | |
Dental acrylic cement | Yates Motloid | 44115 | |
Dumont #5 forceps | Fine science tools | 91150-20 | |
Extra fine Graefe forceps | Fine science tools | 11150-10 | |
Kelly forceps | Fine science tools | 13002-10 | |
Liquid acrylic | Yates Motloid | 44119 | |
Monocryl plus suture needle 13 mm 3/8c rev cutting | Ethicon | MCP494 | |
Providone-iodine 10% | Triad disposables | 10-8208 | |
RelyX Unicem 2, Adhesive Resin Cement A2 | 3M | 56849 | |
Immunofluorescence and ECoG recording | |||
36-Channel EEG Wearable Headbox | LaMONT Medical | 832-000350 | |
CaMKII alpha Monoclonal Antibody (Cba-2) | Invitrogen | 13-7300 | Dilution 1:500 |
Conductors Awg PVC Insulation Cable | Calmont Wire & Cables | HC-0819075R0 | |
Donkey anti-Mouse IgG secondary Ab, Alexa Fluor 568 | Invitrogen | A10037 | Dilution 1:1000 |
Goat anti-Rabbit IgG secondary Ab, Alexa Fluor 488 | Invitrogen | A-11008 | Dilution 1:500 |
HA-Tag (C29F4) Rabbit mAb | Cell signaling | 3724 | Dilution 1:800 |
Programmable Amplifier | LaMONT Medical | 815-000002-S2 | |
Stellate Harmonie | Natus | HSYS-REC-LT2 | |
Swivel connector | Crist Instrument Company Inc. | 4-TBC-9-S |
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