Gene Delivery to Neurons of the Dorsal Root Ganglia Using Adeno-Associated Viral Vectors - Gene Delivery and Therapy for Neurological Disorders - page 182

2.4 Intrathecal
Delivery of Viral Vector

Intrathecal catheterization is performed in many laboratories to
provide sustained delivery of drugs or biologically active molecules,
particularly in the study of nociception and neuropathic pain.
Drugs delivered in this way target the spinal cord and dorsal root
ganglia. More recently the technique has been used to deliver AAV
vectors to target the DRG [ 20 - 23 ]. This has the advantage that
only a single injection is necessary to achieve long-term effects.
Our intrathecal injection technique is adapted from the method by
Yaksh and Rudy [ 24 , 25 ] to place a chronic PE-10 tube in the
dorsal subarachnoid space of rats. They inserted a PE-10 tube
8.5 cm through the foramen magnum to reach the lumbar enlarge-
ment of the rat. In recent years a number of groups including our-
selves (Fig. 3 ) have used this technique to allow AAV injections in

Fig. 3 Transduction of DRG following injection into the intrathecal space. DRG
transduction pattern 2 weeks after intrathecal injection of AAV5-CMV-eGFP-
WPRE. Whole mount photomicrographs of the L2-L6 DRG with native eGFP fl uo-
rescence are shown. Bar = 250 ʼ m