A Way to Genetically Silence Calcium Signaling in Cells and Organisms and Derivates Thereof
Genetic silencing avoids off-target effects of small molecule inhibitorsGene-specific silencing opens opportunity to discover disease mechanism
Explore contributions of calcium signals to disease processesIdentify new therapeutic targets
Researchers at UCLA have modified the traditional Cre-loxP system to include an astrocyte-specific locus to specifically and extensively silence specific genes of interest pertaining to calcium regulation. In doing so, the mouse model allows for specific, regulated, and pas-astrocytic gene expression under very specific conditions. This platform can be expanded to other gene loci and cell types.
Background Current genetic silencing protocols have flaws in their selectivity and extensiveness. For example, a key necessity to studying astrocytes in vivo is the ability to manipulate them selectively without concomitantly impacting other cells. From this perspective, much attention has focused on genetic methods to selectively target astrocytes. Cell-type-specific expression of Cre recombinase (Cre) is frequently used to achieve gene expression and deletion by exploiting the Cre-loxP system. However, existing mouse lines expressing Cre under the control of astrocyte promoters are neither selective for astrocytes nor pan-astrocytic. Related Materials Tech ID/UC Case 28702/2016-99C-0 Related Cases 2016-99C-0
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