Primary Neurons

Primary rat neurons: Transfection of functional HeV glycoproteins and infection with HeV pseudotyped virions.In order to establish the feasibility of carrying out the proposed experiments in primary neurons, we show (figure ) that our assays are amenable to use in primary neurons.  In the experiment, Combined Hippocampus, Cortex, and Ventricular -E18 (Neuromics) were plated, and at 3 days were transfected with plasmids encoding HeV G/F as well as YFP.  On the following day, these cells were infected with HeV or VSV pseudotyped viruses bearing RFP.  In the figure, (A) the phase contrast photos show the differentiated neurons; (B) upon excitation for RFP, the red fluorescence indicates neurons infected by HeV pseudotyped virions; (C) upon excitation for YFP, and the green fluorescence shows the efficiency of transfection in neurons.  This experiment indicates that the proposed experiments can be carried out in primary neurons, which are transfectable and infectable in our systems, and thus supports all the proposed aims. Data Courtesy of Dr. Matteo Porotto, Weill Cornell Medical College. Larger Image