Has anyone used EF1a promoters to drive transgene expression in DRGs in vivo? I’ve had success with hSyn, and recently, a paper from Haenraets et al showed CAG works well for DRG. But EF1a is also very popular and it’d be nice to use. I haven’t tried in vivo. EF1a works on cultured DRGs (I’ve tried this) but I’ve not seen any in vivo.
To answer my own question:
From Arcourt et al (2017):
They injected into the L3-L4 ganglia directly. I was thinking intrathecally. So that remains to be determined. But it looks like EF1a promoter is active in DRG.
Hi, Did you try the intrathecal injection with EF1a promoter? Did it work for you in DRG?
I tried. Didn’t look great but I don’t have much confidence in our viral prep in that instance. Try something from Addgene or UNC core and see how it looks. Let us know.
Hey! Did you ever give CAG or CBA a shot btw? We want to fit in DREADDs with a fluorophore but CAG is pretty large so we might go with CBA. I also recently saw this paper — it’s from a former member of Feng Zhang’s lab. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2211124723013608?via%3Dihub
Supposedly there are some new AAV serotypes (MaCPNS1 and MaCPNS2) from the Gradinaru lab which have better transduction results in DRG/Nodose – we’re interested in testing one of those as well. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0896627322004111
CAG is probably most dependable. BUt if you want to consider CBA, get an off the shelf vector with CBA, try it, see how it expresses.
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Sweet, we ended up just yolo-ing and put in an order from VectorBuilder for a cre-dependent hm4di-mScarlet3 construct under CBA promoter, with AAV9 or MaCPNS1 serotype. I’ll let yall know how it goes. CAG would have been ideal but we wanted to fit the fluorphore in. If CBA doesnt work and we try CAG, I suppose we could swap the fluorophore out for a stainable his-tag or something similar (though I’m not sure how well IHC staining usually works for these – I would prefer not to deal with amplification kits)
Hi Alex, I hope you’re doing well!
I was wondering if you’ve had any experience with intrathecal injections using AAVs with an EF1a promoter recently. I’ve had inconsistent results with hSyn viruses injected intrathecally—some constructs show a little infection, but others don’t seem to work at all. I’ve had good success with constructs using the CAG promoter through the intrathecal route, but the constructs I need aren’t commercially available with CAG or the cargo I’m working with is too large for an AAV with CAG.
I’ve come across an EF1a construct that might work for my project, but before I commit to it, I wanted to check if you have any insights or experience with EF1a intrathecally.
Thanks so much for your time and help! I really appreciate it.
I forgot to say that I’m trying to infect DRG 
Hi Patricia,
I haven’t tried in a long time. Never got a clear answer. But yes, CAG is the best.
I refer to this paper a lot:
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/jnc.14124
I think it might be worth you trying to see if you can get your transgene in a CAG AAV vector. May cost some $$ up front but won’t waste time. Syn is weak in DRG
Blast from the past - here is Syn in DRG that I did intrathecal. It’s clearly there, just not as much as you might need for your application. Never did EF1a
@SamineniV Have you checked EF1a in DRG?
Hi Alex, thank you for your quick answer! It’s a pity that hsyn doesn’t work that well in DRG because most of the commercially available virus that would fit my project come with that promoter. I’ve tried AAV9-hsyn-DIO-YFP and AAV9-hsyn-DIO-hM4D-mCherry and I see some infection with the first construct but no signs of infection with the second one. Both have the same titer but… 
I guess it’s never easy!
Thanks for your insights, they’re always helpful 
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