Intranasal delivery of recombinant AAV vectors to in the olfactory system of Peromyscus deer mice

Adeno-associated viruses (AAVs) are commonly used for in vivo gene transfer and medical therapy. A number of AAVs-administration techniques without the need of specialized surgical manipulation and equipment have been proposed to improve the rate of infectivity with undetected toxicity in various organs and cells. Olfactory perception – the ability to smell – is an essential sensory modality of animals and play a crucial role in mediating appropriate behaviors. Rodents possess two main subsystems for the detection of olfactory information, namely the main olfactory epithelium (MOE) and the vomeronasal organ (VNO). AAVs infection of the olfactory epithelium and its sensory neurons (OSNs) has been used to study odorant receptor function, signal transduction and could provide an alternative for the genetic modification of behavior. Nevertheless, the rate of AAV infection can be inconsistent between target organs and across species. Here, using Peromyscus deer mice which are emerging as an alternative model species to study behavioral evolution, we explore the efficiency and efficacy of intranasal delivery of different AAVs serotypes in the olfactory system of adult deermice., We found that the intranasal delivery of AAVs showed efficient but variable infections in the specific OSNs of MOE and VNO, with a higher infection rate in MOE than in VNO. Moreover, the infection rates differed across the tested AAV serotypes. This work will contribute to the application of genetic modification via the intranasal delivery of AAVs in the olfactory systems of non-traditional model animals.