Increased transgene expression mediated by recombinant adeno-associated virus in human neuroglia cells under microgravity conditions

摘要

The space environment has the special characteristics of radiation, noise particularity and weightlessness, all of which have adverse effects on astronauts’ muscles, bones, neurons and immune system. Some reports have shown that chemotherapy and radiotherapy can increase the activity of the recombinant adeno-associated virus (AAV) which is widely used in gene therapy. In this paper, recombinant AAV2 (rAAV2) was first packaged with the enhanced green fluorescence protein (eGFP) gene and used to infect neuroglia cells including the U87 and U251 cell lines, under microgravity conditions; it was then detected by fluorescence microscopy and flow cytometry. The results show that microgravity affects the adhesion ability of cells, promotes transgene expression induced by rAAV2 and causes changes of viral infection receptors at different time points. These findings broaden the current understanding of the microgravity effects on rAAV, with significant implications in gene therapy and the mechanisms of increased virus pathogenicity under space microgravity.