AAV with GFAP(0.7) promoter driven hChR2(H134R)-EGFP

This AAV expresses hChR2(H134R)-EGFP driven by an astrocyte GFAP(0.7) promoter.

This 0.7 Kb novel GFAP promoter was constructed by ligating several key regulatory elements of the 2.2Kb human GFAP promoter. It drives essentially the same expression pattern as the parental 2.2 Kb GFAP promoter but with two-fold greater activity.

Channelrhodopsins are light-gated ion channels that exist naturally in microalgae. hChR2 is a humanized version of ChR2 for mammalian expression. It is maximally excited by 470 nm light. The wild-type, as well as a few mutations, provide the fastest excitation of the channelrhodopsins offered, and are widely used in optogenetics techniques in neuroscience. Due to delayed channel closure, hChR2(H134R) is a gain-of-function mutation that produces larger photocurrents than wild-type hChR2, but slows down channel kinetics.