Wild-type and engineered adeno-associated viral vectors produce comparable opsin expression and light-evoked responses in rat skeletal muscle.

ABSTRACT: Optogenetics offers a minimally invasive, low-fatigue, and temporally precise alternative to electrical stimulation for skeletal muscle control. After opsin expression in muscle cells, contraction can be stimulated with light. Obstructive sleep apnea, characterized by repeated airway collapse during sleep, suits this approach, as upper airway muscles are readily accessible via the oral cavity, and require stimulation synchronized to respiration. This study compared wild-type (adeno-associated virus 9 [AAV9]) and engineered (AAVMYO) viral vectors for the delivery of identical muscle-specific optogenetic constructs in rats. Three weeks after intramuscular injections, both vectors produced comparable opsin expression in the tongue (p = 0.54) and near-zero expression in non-target tissu

SUBMITTER: Knapman FL 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12409377 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature